Reality testing in place of interpretation: a phase in psychoanalytic work with descendants of Holocaust survivors

Repetition of experience endured by the first generation has frequently been observed in descendants of Holocaust survivors. Such repetitions are associated with an erosion of the ability, in the area of the trauma, to distinguish more or less reliably between external and internal reality. This in turn results from the defensive need, in the affected families, to dissociate from such extreme traumatic experiences. Clinical material is presented to show that, at a certain phase in psychoanalytic work with patients belonging to subsequent generations, interpretive activity may need to be temporarily suspended in order to facilitate reality testing and the recognition of the Shoah as an objective historical fact.