Listening to My Mother's Testimony

Abstract

The article opens with a discussion of the complex inter-relationship between psychoanalysis and testimony. This is followed by a close reading of the author's mother's testimony, viewed for the first time 26 years after it was originally taken by him. The multiple perspectives of this viewing are elucidated: the five-year-old boy through whom the mother tells her story; the adult who has his own memories of the shared survival experiences; the interviewer who listens to the mother and to himself; and the psychoanalyst who reflects on what he hears and what he picks up on repeated hearings of the testimony, noticing market shifts in his own countertransference responses, which enhance his comprehension. Special themes are highlighted, as well as interactions between memories which may illustrate intergenerational transmission of trauma in the making. Three transcribed video excerpts are presented with detailed commentary by the author of this article.