The relevance of the Holocaust for contemporary psychoanalytic practice

Psychoanalytic research into the intrapsychic experience of Holocaust survivors offers interesting insights into the complex consequences of severe psychological trauma. The work of Samuel Gerson, Dori Laub and many others in this field helps to conceptualise the intrapsychic scars of severe trauma and provides interesting starting-points for dealing with extreme social and individual trauma in contemporary psychoanalytic trauma treatment. The recommended foundations of this approach are set out in this article.