Sociopolitical Trauma: Forgetting, Remembering, and Group Analysis

Abstract

Sociopolitical trauma inevitably leads to fracture. Moving away, forgetting, or simply burying what is too painful disconnects the present from the past, making it difficult for subsequent generations to develop a coherent narrative of their history and identity. The author draws on her history as the daughter of a Jewish refugee from Hitler’s Germany and briefly links this experience to the current world refugee situation and the aftermath of colonization in Aotearoa New Zealand. A group-analytic group, unlike individual psychotherapy, provides a temporary social context that evokes past group experiences in the present. Trauma is viewed socioculturally, and attention is paid to emerging cultures in the here and now that replicate the original silencing cultures of the past. This process offers an opportunity to find new connections and gain “outsight.” The author concludes by describing a series of workshops held in Germany over 13 years.