ABSTRACT
“Born into a World at War” explores affective and familial themes in personal narratives of a cohort of World War II “war babies,” members of the Harvard-Radcliffe class of 1965. It brings to this exploration perspectives on development, psychohistory, and generational issues formulated by the American independent psychoanalyst and psychohistorian Erik Erikson and the sociologist of knowledge Karl Mannheim. Listening indirectly, reading with a psychoanalytic ear, the chapter shows that by reading for affect, fantasy, defense, conflict, and narrative themes, we can find, within a wide variety of stories told by World War II war babies from different backgrounds and countries, similar emotional themes and tonalities, as well as retrospective constructions of childhood selves. An affective psychocultural ethos that includes themes of displacement, sadness, bewilderment, father-absence, the horrors of war, trauma, explosions, and radical silences, along with resilience, mobility, and making do permeated the experiences of this generation. Throughout, the chapter draws upon the author's own personal and family history, dreams, affect, and countertransference as a member of the war baby generation.
