ABSTRACT
Being poisoned by a FSB agent while providing medical and psychological aid in the Second Chechen War in 2005 was as debilitating as it was liberating. My subsequent physical illness, laid over layers of a sense of disconnection and being unseen, catalyzed a spiritual awakening that proved essential to my recovery and that of my patients. This chapter explores surrender, signified by being open to and expanded by the subjectivity of the Other and letting go of submission, signified by the need either to acquiesce or rebel. Surrender is entwined with transformation and with it, psychoanalysis becomes a psychospiritual journey, as many have explored. In this journey, we become able to uncover our souls. Spirituality and a sense of interconnectedness to oneself, society, nature, and the cosmos can also be an antidote to terrorism, and as it turns out, poisoning. Rather than reenacting violence, the spiritual journey involves turning inwards to work through, learn and transcend trauma.
