ABSTRACT
In the concluding chapter, the author aims integrating radical psychic trauma into the temporal continuity of an individual’s life using the Shoah as a metaphor for incomprehensible grief and sorrow. Through the completed work of mourning, the ego may recover its primary narcissistic resources at an advanced level of psychic organisation, which also signifies a progressive internalisation of the past and the anticipation of the future. To the extent that this transformation has taken place, a wounded primary narcissism becomes possible to understand as a sad occurrence in an individual’s history or prehistory, belonging to the past without the endless demands of retribution. This state of mind is not far from the delight of being alive, the clarity of vision, and the capability of transparent thinking, all of which indicate an individual’s psychic survival.
