Psychoanalytic Assistance After a Massacre

On October 7th, 2023, Israel was invaded by 6,000 hamas terrorists, who slaughtered more than 1,200 people and kidnapped an additional 251, taking them to Gaza. Among these were babies as young as nine months and elderly individuals, some of whom had survived the Holocaust. Within two days, hundreds of psychoanalysts from the three psychoanalytic societies in Israel, organized by the authors of this article, came together to aid the victims of the massacre. This paper discusses the major psychoanalytic concepts that we found most helpful in our work with the survivors of the massacre, bereaved family members, family members of the hostages, and the freed hostages who returned from Gaza after more than 50 days. We will explore the following psychoanalytic anchors: the life and death drives; from paranoid-schizoid reactions to depressive attitude and ethical stance; the recovery of good internal objects; and the importance of an “good-enough.” Additionally, we will address the working through of transgenerational trauma and survivor’s guilt, illustrating these concepts with short vignettes and a clinical example. This paper provides a theoretical and practical backbone for working with trauma victims in general, and with those affected by trauma on a national scale specifically.