Animal Killer: Transmission of War Trauma From One Generation to the Next

by Vamik D. Volkan

Overview

A psychoanalytic process from its beginning to its termination is described to illustrate crucial technical issues in the treatment of individuals with narcissistic personality organization and the countertransference manifestations such patients stimulate in the analyst. The subject of this book exhibited cruelty to confirm and stabilize his grandiosity. His internal world was a "reservoir" of the deposited image of his father figure, an individual most severely traumatized during World War II. The patient was given the task to be a mass-"killer" of animals instead of being a hunted one.This book most clearly illustrates how the transgenerational transmission of trauma takes place and how the impact of war continues in future generations. The book also provides an understanding of a special kind of psychological motivation that directs a person to use weapons for mass killing. In this era of pluralism in psychoanalysis, providing the story of a psychoanalytic case in its duration opens ways for comparison and discussion of technique and can be used as a teaching tool.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367102371
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	07/25/2019
Pages:	118
Product dimensions:	6.25(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.00(d)

Table of Contents

About this Book , Foreword , My behind-the-scenes work with Peter , What makes a person live in an “island empire”? , Gregory’s birdhouse and Peter’s raccoon experience , Black bears and taxidermy , “Empty sleep”, therapeutic regression, and “crucial juncture” experiences , Operation Desert Storm, sinking a psychological submarine, and the inability to shoot a black bear , Mourning and oedipal issues , A “second look”, freeing a bird, and the end of psychoanalytic work

Editorial Reviews

"A link between wanton slaying of animals and mass murder? Vamik Volkan explores this intriguing and very timely question in a most unique psychoanalytic study. From his vantage point as the supervisor on this case, the patient's hard exterior and inner turmoil come alive in startlingly clear detail. From the still elusive phenomenon of intergenerational transmission of trauma to the challenges of working with severe narcissistic psychopathology, the reader becomes a witness to the profound changes that can only occur with a psychoanalytic process. Volkan's almost telepathic attunement and clinical wisdom offer something for therapists and social scientists at all levels. This book is a rare treat and will take its place among the best clinical monographs in our field."—Ira Brenner, author of Injured Men and Training and Supervising Analyst, Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia; Clinical Professor of Psychiatry

"Dr Vamik Volkan's book takes on special meaning in the wake of the horrible murder of innocents in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012. Volkan describes his supervision of the difficult but effective psychoanalysis of Peter, a mass-murderer of animals and civilians during war, who provides a glimpse into the complex causality involved with a man consumed by the urge to kill. Peter's successful treatment also makes vivid the important concept of transgenerational transmission of trauma. This book will stir important conversations among psychotherapists and all those concerned with the prevention of lethal violence."—Peter A. Olsson, author of A Boyish God and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry

"In Animal Killer: Transmission of War Trauma from One Generation to the Next, Vamik Volkan offers the reader a brilliant insight into the human soul - its frailties, its power, and its historical integrity - as seen through the disparate lenses of war and clinical psychoanalysis. He demonstrates in simple, lucid, compelling prose how wartime exposure to violence wreaks havoc with a person's sense of self and of order in the world. He shows how the transgenerational effects of torture, isolation, terror, and loss of moral grounding can come forward and may be resolved through psychoanalysis. From a clinical point of view, the book is a master lesson in both doing and supervising psychoanalysis. The difficult work of treating a person with malignant narcissism is rendered understandable and deeply interesting. The basic principles and also the poignancy of supervising such an endeavor are gifts to the supervisor. In the context of recent acts of terror in places like Newtown, Boston, and Mogadishu, the experience of societal horror is portrayed in a way that will make this book accessible and helpful to the concerned bystander as well as every mental health professional."—Harriet L. Wolfe, co-author of My Book about the Attack on America: A Guided Activity Workbook for Children, Families and Teachers and Chair, San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis Board of Trustees;

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