ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the term "psychic hole" and compares it with similar terms from the world of astrophysics and terms used in the psychoanalytic literature, particularly the "empty circle". It presents the "psychic hole" in cases of Holocaust survivors' offspring. The chapter explains how this "hole" is created and describes a particular aspect of the "psychic hole" that is unique to Holocaust survivors' offspring—namely, the enactments generated by the negated traumatic themes that reside in it. It shows these enactments using clinical material taken from case studies of Holocaust survivors' offspring. The chapter offers technical suggestions for analysts to help patients remove the "negation". The therapist's supportive attitude facilitates the patient's discovery of that part of the parent's history that has been negated and that will fill the "hole" with psychic representations. The concept of a "black hole" was first applied clinically by W. R. Bion in reference to the infantile catastrophe of the psychotic.
