ABSTRACT

In this chapter, I link our conceptualization of the power of witnessing to the therapeutic encounter. I emphasize the creation of an atmosphere in which the therapist is a willing witness to moments of trauma. When speaking of trauma, we are faced with specifying an adequate and specific means of defining what we mean. The dictionary definition of psychic trauma is “a disordered psychological or behavioral state resulting from mental or emotional stress or physical injury.” In light of the increasingly broad use of trauma as applied to virtually every aspect of life, I intend to restrict the definition to the feelings of utter helplessness, annihilation terror, despair, and failure to be seen as a worthwhile human being as represented by the Holocaust. That is not to suggest that the Holocaust alone “qualifies” for this definition, but rather that it represents the extreme psychological aftermath of unspeakable atrocities.