In his new book, 97-year-old Robert Jay Lifton shares the 'survivor wisdom' he's learned from those who've lived through terrible events — the Holocaust, Hiroshima, POW camps.
Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton has studied Auschwitz survivors, Vietnam war veterans, survivor of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and people who'd been subjected to repression by the Chinese government. He reflects on what he's learned in his new book,Wolfgang RichterPsychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton has studied Auschwitz survivors, Vietnam war veterans, survivor of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and people who'd been subjected to repression by the Chinese government.
What did you find among the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that might bring hope to survivors of catastrophe? We human beings are meaning-hungry creatures. For survivors that's doubly so. When people undergo very great trauma, they either close down or open out. I called the closing-down"psychic numbing," by which I mean a diminished capacity or inclination to feel. There are times when people need to be silent because it isn't possible for them to speak.
There are phases, sometimes even lifelong phases of Auschwitz survivors, many of whom I interviewed, during which they are unable to talk about what they went through. Because the pain is too overwhelming and it's a reminder of being back in Auschwitz. It becomes important for most of them to find a way to articulate what they saw and experienced. Otherwise, they can be stuck in their trauma, and stuckness means lacking the capacity to confront or articulate what they had been through.
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