My lecture will be about the personal and collective dimension of trauma. I will therefore start with the question: what is actually a ‘real’ trauma as differentiated from all kind of stressful situations. Some thoughts and some theoretical background will be given. I will than focus on the issue of ‘collective trauma’ as a phenomena of the ‘social unconscious’ - and close with some thoughts about the role of the psychotherapist and the professional community when we have to work ‘under fire’ - to quote Wilfred Bion.