Echoes of the Trauma

Hadas Wiseman is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Counseling and Human Development, Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Israel. She is a member of the Society for Psychotherapy Research (SPR) and of the International Association for Relationship Research (IARR). She works in Israel and spent a sabbatical year in Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada. Wiseman is also a certified clinical psychologist in private practice in Tivon, Israel, and is co-author of Conversation as Method: Analyzing the Relational World of People Who Were Raised Communally. Jacques P. Barber is Professor of Psychology, Center for Psychotherapy Research, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. He is President of the Society for Psychotherapy Research. He co-authored the Handbook of Brief Dynamic Therapies; Handbook of Dynamic Psychotherapy Research and Practice: A How-to-Do-Them Guide; and Dynamic Therapies for Psychiatric Disorders (Axis 1).

“In this remarkable book, Wiseman and Barber employ an ingenious approach for studying the “echoes of trauma” in children of Holocaust survivors. Combining the descriptive nuance of the case study approach with the rigor of formal narrative analysis procedures, they provide a powerful portrait of the relational and emotional themes that pervade the lives of survivors’ children. Common themes such as the conflicting needs for closeness and autonomy, and the need to protect vulnerable parents are vividly illustrated in their subjects’ lives. Of particular interest is the phenomenon of intergenerational transmission of trauma resulting in a type of knowing without knowing. This is a rich, compelling and beautifully written book that will be of interest to a wide audience of readers.” —Jeremy D. Safran, Ph.D., Professor and Director of Clinical Psychology, New School for Social Research

• 1. Introduction: a narrative approach to bridging the gap between clinical case studies and empirical research; 2. Studying relationship narratives with the Core Conflictual Relationship Theme (CCRT) method; Part I. Relational Themes in Narratives: 3. Wishes for closeness and autonomy; 4. The need to protect vulnerable parents and to avoid conflicts; 5. 'Without words': themes of interpersonal communication; Part II. Emotions in the Narratives: 6. Anger; 7. Guilt, shame and embarrassment; 8. Anxiety and helplessness; 9. Loneliness; 10. Joy and pride; Part III. Healing Trauma in the Chain of the Generations: 11. The second generation's experience of parenting their adolescent children; 12. Growing up to the music of knowing-not knowing: reflections and clinical implications.