Associations July 2018

ASSOCIATIONS Newsletter of the Western New England Psychoanalytic Society July 2018 Editor’s Note national and international communities of Put off reading this issue until after the swim psychoanalysis. He had just recently closed his where you spied the blue-green depths of the private practice. We remember now also his lake; or until you return from walking in the loved wife and our colleague Johanna woods where sounds of living Bodenstab, who passed things accentuate the quiet. away in 2015. And we Give yourself time when you extend our condolences to are less harried—between his first wife, Dalia, who one task and the next, one many of us fondly email and the next—to enjoy remember, and his these articles of reflection children Miri and Avi and and remembrance. their families. Included in this issue, Paul Schwaber looks back on I first met Dr. Laub, a a life guided by twin loves of loved colleague and fellow literature and psychiatrist, when, in the psychoanalysis. Gretchen late 1970s he was Hermes contemplates initiating the Holocaust Freud’s early explorations of Survivors Film Project in his “Project” in light of New Haven, Connecticut -- contemporary understanding today the Fortunoff Video of neuronal processes. And Archive for Holocaust Rosemary Balsam reminds Testimonies at Yale us of Dori Laub’s great work, University. I was fresh his legacy, and his presence from growing up in amongst us. So put this off Northern Ireland -- a place for a quiet moment, when with its own problems and you have the leisure to read political violence: vivid of our friends and the stories of the “troubles,” community we have. where my mother’s family were burned out of their Photo courtesy of Lauri Robertson, MD In Memory of Dori Laub, MD house near Dublin in the 1920s; the By Rosemary Balsam, MD devastation of the male population during WW1 We received on June 24th 2018, the very sad where my father had survived the Battle of the news of Dori’s death. Just a few weeks before, I Somme -- but talked about it movingly and had written a letter in support of his nomination eloquently and was thus preserved as full of for a Sigourney Award, and I will share an life, (an important resilience I grasped only in excerpt from it below. His will be a great loss retrospect from hearing Dori’s work with severe not only to his family and to WNE, but to the trauma and the resultant personality and Table of Contents Continuing Education…….7 Scientific Meetings………….…14 In Memory of Dori Laub…..1 Pleasures of Mind: Schwaber….8 Candidates Column: Hermes.…4 Peregrinations……..13 WNEPS • July • 2018 • "1 ASSOCIATIONS intergenerational damage associated with For this child survivor of the Holocaust in ensuing and enduring silence); the blitz of WWII Romania, subsequent multiple immigrations when my worried parents daily hovered over and first-hand encounters with casualty survivor the crackling radio, plotting maps of the Allies’ soldiers in Israel’s own battles for survival, the defeats and victories. I remember without formation of this ambitious Archive was an understanding, their aghast reactions to the incredibly brave and elaboratively creative act phrases “the Warsaw ghetto,” and “the fate of to bring to fruition. Dori had importantly the help the Jews in Europe.” of Laurel Vlock, an American Jew who grew up Here, in New acutely aware Haven Connecticut, of wartime now an adult miseries and psychiatrist and one anti-Semitism of the interviewers in around her, these early phases of and who Dori’s project, in became a empty basements of television churches with a few journalist. lights and an Dori’s energy amateur movie- for the project camera trained on attracted the subject with a help, money primitive tape and co- recorder, I had first- operation. He hand exposure to the was quiet, stories of American determined, Jewish immigrants, deeply kind, people struggling understanding, ambivalently to recall their harrowing with a rueful humor, and yet unsentimental, a experiences in their original homelands. Dori man of few words who developed tremendous instructed us to be in the background. He rapport with and emotional knowledge of the wanted psychotherapists to conduct these survivors. My husband and I joked that he was interviews, because they knew how to be as passionate in his purpose, as staunchly patient, be quiet and not interfere, and yet reliable and as toughly persistent as a fire recognize when to stop the taping, or to hydrant! This form of recording the horror of the moderate the truly overwhelming moments. lost past of these European families was, as Previously silent people who now were able to you may appreciate, the first undertaking of its come to be debriefed were often pained but kind, thirty years after the events. Similar desperate to be recorded for their progeny. projects now exist in the United States and They pushed themselves to remember, newly abroad, including the famous Survivors of the keen for other human beings “to witness” their Shoah Visual History Foundation, established experiences -- that verb that Dori subsequently by Steven Spielberg. Such was and is the became famous for, and from which he helped world-wide and historical influence of Dori Laub develop a whole aspect of psychoanalytic in this field. theory to go to the heart of shattering traumata His CV will inform those who want to take in and the dimensions of its psychic effects. Even the full national and international compass of a grainy film of their likenesses, and the timbre his psychological research and psychoanalytic of their voices would prove to descendants that dedication to his task. Dori Laub’s studies are they had not only survived the vile the quintessential form of the very best of circumstances but had defied Hitler. I saw also applied psychoanalysis. He has had many the empowerment they experienced from being awards, including The International heard. So much had been annihilated in those Psychoanalytic Association’s Elise M. Hayman lives still present: yet what prevailed was Award for the Study of the Holocaust and sometimes even the more breathtaking. Genocide. He has written immensely, mostly in the company of others, shared his ideas WNEPS • July • 2018 • "2 ASSOCIATIONS generously, and also has done formal research. and accomplishment of this man, his vision, his His works are in English and German and have value to the human community and the been translated into other languages. He and immensity of his contribution which deeply his colleagues are responsible for the honors Freud. His work has extended beyond introduction of such original and captivating the victims of the Holocaust, to studying and concepts as “the empty circle,” which helping Bosnian victims, all victims of current “symbolizes the absence of representation, the wartime crises and the domestic homeless. He rupture of the self, and the erasure of memory still is the Deputy Director for Trauma Studies at that together constitute the core legacy of The Macmillan Center for International and massive psychic trauma.” (1998 p. 507 in “The Area Studies: Genocide Studies Program at empty circle: children of survivors and the limits Yale University. To convey his immersion in his of reconstruction” J Am Psychoanal Assoc. own work, and his modesty in feeling more in 1998;46(2):507-29.); or “witnessing witnessing,” service to his vision than personal promotion for the study of how the survivors’ testimony is glory – I can tell you that I was the person who received. suggested to him at his recent 80th birthday To a large and specific population, Dori Laub party, that I would put him forward for a brought his own life, his talents as a doctor, a Sigourney Award. He had never thought of it psychiatrist, a psychoanalyst, teacher, scholar before for himself, as he does not think of his and writer, with naturalness in his profound work as sufficiently psychoanalytical. However, understanding of Freud and his way of listening I would say that it is obvious that he richly and responding both to individuals and groups. deserves this award, and that his contributions He observed very closely; he theorized with and heritage are of formidable and compelling colleagues; he formed communities; he wrote a human significance. great deal and traveled to involve others and We will sorely miss his presence in our lives. publicize the worth of his projects. And he never lost sight of the individual as his subject, or the history of their being, or the psychic impact of their early lives that often -- but not always -- contrasted with the War with its chaotic and violent surround. He studied breakdown and he studied survival. I am not the supporter to define in detail his psychoanalytic contribution as can my colleague in this nomination, Ilany Kogan. I am one who can convey to you the sheer power SAVE THE DATE 2019 WNEPS Symposium Saturday 6 April 2019 “A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND” Donald Moss • Sidney Phillips • Elizabeth Brett WNEPS • July • 2018 • "3 ASSOCIATIONS Figure 1: Top: Mitochondria, electron microscope photograph Middle: In this image of a mouse hippocampus (magenta), new cells are labelled in red, and mitochondria— the intracellular power packs responsible for driving cellular activities throughout the body — are labelled in green. The hippocampus, a brain region involved in learning and memory, is one of only a few areas in the brain that continues to create new neurons throughout adulthood. (Steib, et al. The Journal of Neuroscience, 2014). Bottom: Mitochondria (in blue) are not static, cylinder-shaped organelles but change shape and move about the cytoplasm on an almost continuous basis. These activities often appear to involve cytoskeletal microtubules, which influence the characteristic direction and dissemination of the mitochondria in various kinds of cells, like a microscopic highway or subway system.

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