Forgetting and Remembering in Wartime and Beyond: Reflections on essays by three Ukrainian psychoanalysts

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this discussion I compare the accounts of the three writers, and consider the future they face as clinicians and human beings. I explore the shifts in clinical work, understanding, and self-definition that they have each experienced, both personally and in their work with Ukrainian soldiers. I also look at early psychoanalytic approaches to war trauma and the expanded understanding that has emerged from work with veterans of the Vietnam War I briefly explore my own family history of war and consider important shifts in psychoanalytic work that are necessary when working with combat soldiers. These include a shift to a contemporary understanding of neutrality, the importance of witnessing and community, widening the availability of the therapist, and integrating more active approaches. I also reflect on the shifts in national identity that have been fueled by the invasion of Ukraine.