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Wynerfinal Dissertation THE WOUNDED HEALER: FINDING MEANING IN SUFFERING A dissertation submitted by GARRET B. WYNER, PH.D. to ANTIOCH UNIVERSITY SANTA BARBARA In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PSYCHOLOGY in CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY ___________________________________________ Juliet Rohde–Brown, Ph.D., Chair ___________________________________________ Sharleen O’Brian Dolan, Psy.D., Second Faculty ___________________________________________ Donna M. Orange, Ph.D., Psy.D., External Expert ___________________________________________ Kimberly D. Robbins, Psy.D., Student Reader ! ABSTRACT In modern history, no event has more profoundly symbolized suffering than the Holocaust. This novel “Husserlian-realist” phenomenological dissertation elucidates the meaning of existential trauma through an interdisciplinary and psychologically integrative vantage point. I use the testimony of a select group of Holocaust witnesses who committed suicide decades after that event as a lens to examine what their despair may reveal about an unprecedented existential, moral, and spiritual crisis of humanity that threatens to undermine our faith in human history and reality itself. By distinguishing what they actually saw about our condition from what they merely believed about reality, I show there is a reliable hope that can fulfill the highest reaches of human nature in the worst conditions. This I call a Psychotherapy of Hope. To this end, I provide a broad overview of the four main forces of psychotherapy to evaluate the role each plays in healing this crisis. I then provide an elucidation of empathic understanding within an “I/Thou” altruistic relationship having power to transform human personality. The primary barrier to personal transformation is shown to be no mere value-neutral indifference, but “cold” indifference or opposition to an objective good. No one can avoid a faith commitment, and the only solution to this crisis is our love or reliance on a self-transcendent good or benevolent super-ego worthy of our trust. By means of this love we can find meaning in our suffering to become more than ii! ! ! we are, better than we are, and even transform human life as we know it. By love we may heal our wounds. Keywords: wounded healer, suffering, meaning in suffering, existential trauma, physical trauma, psychological trauma, moral trauma, spiritual trauma, Holocaust, collective moral crisis, collective existential crisis, collective spiritual crisis, blind faith, bad faith, good faith, moral power, empathy, empathic love, psychopathic empathy, altruism, law of love, I and Thou, four forces of psychotherapy, psychotherapy of hope, Husserlian realism, empiricism, idealism, transcendence. ! ! iii! ! ! ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To my committee members: Juliet Rohde-Brown, Ph.D., Sharleen O’Brien, Psy.D., Donna Orange, Ph.D., Psy.D., and Kimberly D. Robbins, Psy.D., thank you all for your encouragement. To Barbara Lipinski, Ph.D., J.D., and Steve Kadin, Ph.D. along with many other of the faculty at Antioch University, Santa Barbara, thank you for an especially intimate educational experience. Brianna Shepard, thank you for helping me put the manuscript into APA format. Thank you, Peggy, for always being by my side and for our two sons, Josh and Gabriel who, together with you have been my sanctuary in this world. I owe a special debt of gratitude to you, Josh, for inspiring me to get into this field, for your endless patience in helping your technically challenged father in general and with his presentations in particular, and for your editorial help with this dissertation. Thank you, Primo Levi, Jean Amery and all those in every age–great wounded healers–who dared to stand up for the truth and what is truly good at the cost of their lives and reputations in a coldly indifferent world. You are not forgotten. iv! ! ! TABLE OF CONTENTS! ABSTRACT!......................................................................................................................................!ii! ! ACKNOWLEDGMENTS!..............................................................................................................!iv! ! CHAPTER!I:!Introduction!.........................................................................................................!1! ! CHAPTER!II:!Existential!Trauma!and!the!Holocaust!.................................................!12! ! CHAPTER!III:!Review!of!the!Literature!...........................................................................!26! Freud!and!Trauma!.............................................................................................................................!26! Critical!Review!of!the!Four!Main!Forces!in!Psychology!....................................................!44! Psychoanalytic!Empathy!and!Love!.............................................................................................!59! ! CHAPTER!IV:!Methodology!................................................................................................!130! ! CHAPTER!V:!Discussion!......................................................................................................!171! ! REFERENCES!...........................................................................................................................!184! ! v! ! ! 1! ! ! ! CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION What is it about the power of altruistic love or goodness that arguably moves even the most ruthless individuals to speak in its name (Plato, 1875b; Rogers, 1961; Wyner, 1988)? Adolf Hitler (1943) said, “I can fight only for something that I love” (p. 34), and repeatedly referred to the need for meaningful purpose, social justice, and a strong philosophical and moral foundation. He spoke in the name of Christian faith, and of his unique role in its providential spiritual awakening or renaissance. He explicitly said that he was acting in accordance with God’s will, driven by an inner voice “to carry on the work of true Christianity” (p. 307). Like Maslow’s (1971) appeal to the Farther Reaches of Human Nature, Hitler speaks of the inherent nobility of his people. He is convinced that he is chosen to lead them as “the Prometheus of mankind from whose bright forehead the divine spark of genius has sprung up at all times, forever kindling anew that fire of knowledge which illumined the night of silent mysteries and thus caused man to climb the path to mastery . .” (p. 290). What’s the difference between the genuine article and the counterfeits? Psychologists, too, speak in the name of altruistic love or goodness. Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, declared in a letter to Jung that psychotherapy is a ! ! 2! ! cure! “effected by love” (Freud & Jung, 1974). Sandor Ferenczi referred to the ! sense in which patients only respond to love, compassion, or “real sincere sympathy” (Ferenczi, 1955, p. 161; 1995). D. W. Winnicott (1994) referred to our common recognition of the reality and power of a mother’s love. Donna Orange (2011) refers to these and other leading analysts in terms of the patient’s need for a “hermeneutics of compassion and trust” (p. 147). R. D. Laing (1960) concluded, “The main agent in uniting the patient . is the physician’s love, a love that recognizes the patient’s total being, and accepts it, with no strings attached” (p. 178). Viktor Frankl (1992), the founder of Logotherapy, said, “A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth– that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire” (pp. 48– 49). The list is practically endless and not limited to psychotherapy. For example, Pitirim Sorokin (1954), the founder of modern Sociology, says, “Love is the most powerful antidote against criminal, morbid, and suicidal tendencies; against hate, fear, and psychoneuroses” (p. viii). Sorokin quotes Abraham Maslow, one of the founders of Humanistic-Existential Psychotherapy, as saying, “It is amazing how little the empirical sciences have to offer on the subject of love . Particularly strange is the silence of the psychologists” (p. viii). Even stranger is how we simultaneously acknowledge love as the core need of human life while conceding ! ! 3! ! its! relative absence. It is as if the child’s cry for love falls on deaf ears and ! something other than fidelity to one’s heart matters more to us. In a world where over 75 million genocides and democides have been committed in the last century alone and traumatic suffering is almost exclusively due to human abuse and neglect, rather than natural causes, what kind of love can avail? How do we gain access to it? How might it be nourished or how may it evolve? How can we meaningfully understand the assertions of the psychologists above? For example, what precisely does Frankl (1966) mean when he speaks of fulfilling meaning in even the most hopeless situations? What does he mean when he says, “It is self-evident that belief in a super-meaning–whether as a metaphysical concept or in the religious sense of Providence–is of the foremost psychotherapeutic and psychohygienic importance” (p. 33)? Such!a!seemingly!religious!position!may!seem!naïve!to!avowed! atheists.!It!seemed!so!to atheist survivors of the Holocaust like Primo Levi, Jean Amery, and Paul Celan, who committed suicide decades after their suffering in the camps (Amery, 1980; Langer, 1995; Levi, 1986a). But, survivors who were believers also echoed a similar cry that something was wrong with humanity– ordinary, average, normal
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