Vicarious Group Trauma among British Jews

Christina Fuhr

doi:10.1007/s11133-016-9337-4

Abstract

Given that literature on the intra- and inter-generational transmission of traumas is mainly based on secondary literature and focuses on the transmission of trauma memory in terms of the historical knowledge of group trauma, this article develops the theory of vicarious group trauma and tests this theory by exploring vicarious traumatization in the everyday lives of Jews in Britain through the methods of observation and in-depth interviewing. Vicarious group trauma is defined as a life or safety-threatening event or abuse that happened to some members of a social group but is felt by other members as their own experience because of their personal affiliation with the group. The article finds that the vicarious sensation of traumatic group experiences can create anxiety, elicit perceptions of threat and, by extension, hypervigilance among Jews. The findings demonstrate that group traumas of the past interpenetrate and interweave with members’ current lives and in this way can also become constitutive of their group identity. An institutional focus on threats to Jews can inform the construction and reinforcement of traumatization symptoms and accordingly vicarious group trauma. This article suggests an association between the level of involvement of group members in the collective’s social structure and the prominence of vicarious group trauma among them.

Highlights

Given that literature on the intra- and inter-generational transmission of traumas is mainly based on secondary literature and focuses on the transmission of trauma memory in terms of the historical knowledge of group trauma, this article develops the theory of vicarious group trauma and tests this theory by exploring vicarious traumatization in the everyday lives of Jews in Britain through the methods of observation and in-depth interviewing
Vicarious group trauma is defined in this article as a life- or safety-threatening event or abuse that happened to some members of a social group but is felt by other members as their own experience because of their personal affiliation with the group
The narratives below demonstrate that group traumas of the past interpenetrate and interweave with members’ current lives and in this way can become constitutive of their group identity

Summary

Introduction

Given that literature on the intra- and inter-generational transmission of traumas is mainly based on secondary literature and focuses on the transmission of trauma memory in terms of the historical knowledge of group trauma, this article develops the theory of vicarious group trauma and tests this theory by exploring vicarious traumatization in the everyday lives of Jews in Britain through the methods of observation and in-depth interviewing. The article finds that the vicarious sensation of traumatic group experiences can create anxiety, elicit perceptions of threat and, by extension, hypervigilance among Jews. Vicarious group trauma is defined in this article as a life- or safety-threatening event or abuse that happened to some members of a social group but is felt by other members as their own experience because of their personal affiliation with the group. The article presents a description of the actual traumas that are communicated to and remembered by different kinds of Jewish people It finds that secular participants—meaning synagogue (affiliated) members who are less or not at all engaged with Judaism as a religion, culture and community as well as synagogue (unaffiliated) members—tend to remember only the Holocaust. The narratives below demonstrate that group traumas of the past interpenetrate and interweave with members’ current lives and in this way can become constitutive of their group identity

Methods

Findings

Conclusion