“You can do as much about the legacy of the Holocaust – and what I took from my depressed mother who lost all her family in the Holocaust – there is only so much I could do in personal analysis and there was another bit that I could do only in a strange kind of dialogue in the presence of Germans doing their own work. It is: ‘do your own internal work in the presence of an other who is doing his/her internal work.”
Mira Erlich-Ginor
Tel Aviv
Episode Description:
We begin by learning about Mira’s involvement in the origin of Partners in Confronting Collective Atrocities (PCCA) 30 years ago. She shares with us the profound internal changes that occurred in both the Israeli and German analysts who came together and ‘did their own work in the presence of the other’. She describes her ongoing consultative work with members of the Ukraine Psychoanalytic Society as they face terrible tragedies and uncertainties regarding their future. She advises humble respect for their need for psychological armor before recommending their encountering colleagues who are identified with the current aggressor. We close with her describing her pride in being Israeli and how it lives in her devotion to healing.
Our Guest:
Mira Erlich-Ginor, M.A, is a training and supervising analyst, and faculty of the Israel Psychoanalytic Society. She is deeply involved in psychoanalytic education and group relations work as well as serving as European representative for the IPA Board for two terms. Currently, she is Chair of the Steering Committee, IPA in the Community and the World. She has been co-director of the IPS psychotherapy track; chair of the education committee IPS, chair of the EPF (European Psychoanalytic Federation) Working Party on Education, Chair of Sponsoring Committee PSIKE, Turkey. She has also initiated and led several international research projects on psychoanalytic education among them is the End of Training Evaluation Project. She is committed to the application of psychoanalytic understandings to societal issues, co-founding the “Nazareth Project”- Group Relations work on transgenerational transmission of trauma as well as co-Founder, past chair, and member of OFEK – Israeli Group Relation organization. She is also Co-founder and in management of PCCA, Partners in Confronting Collective Atrocities, recipient of the Sigourney Award 2019.
Recommended Readings:
http://p-cca.org/
https://www.sigourneyaward.org/video-blog/2021/10/8/confronting-personal-trauma-in-a-group
Beland, H. (2014) Collective Mourning – Who or What frees a Collective to Mourn. About First Step Out of the Most Malign Prejudice. In: Cyril Levitt, (Ed.): Hostile and Malignant Prejudice: Psychoanalytic Approaches. The International Psychoanalytical Association, Psychoanalytical Ideas and Application Series, Routledge, 2014.
Davids, M. F. (2013) “Tears are better than blood; words are better than tears”; can we address current ongoing conflict? In A. Varchevker & E. McGinley (Eds.), Enduring Migration through the Life Cycle (pp. 187–210). London: Karnac.
Erlich, H. S., Erlich-Ginor, M. & Beland, H. Fed with Tears – Poisoned with Milk. The “Nazareth” Group-Relations-Conferences: Germans and Israelis: The Past in the Present. Psychosozial Verlag: Gießen, 2009.
Erlich, H. S., Erlich-Ginor, M. & Beland, H. Gestillt mit Tränen – Vergiftet mit Milch. Die Nazareth-Gruppenkonferenzen: Deutsche und Israelis – Die Vergangenheit ist gegenwärtig. Psychosozial Verlag: Gießen, 2009.
Erlich, H. S., Erlich-Ginor, M. Beland H. (2009) Being in Berlin: A large group experience in the Berlin Congress. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 90:809-825.
Erlich-Ginor, M. (2013) Fed with Tears, Poisoned with Milk: The Way Out from Under the Shadows of the Holocaust. In: Varchevker, A. McGinley, E. (ed.): Enduring Migration: External and Internal Migration Through the Life Cycle. London: Karnac.
I took part in two Nazareth-conferences 2004 and 2008. Now I listened to this impressiv interview with much respect and deep thankfulness about the way, Mira talks about the group-work since the beginning and about her own movement and affection. Mira, thank you for this profond interview, which let come back many experiences, memories and feelings for me and which as well is so moving for me as listener.
Muy interesante y emotiva charla. Gracias Mira y Harvey.
It was very interesting to hear Mira. I have learned a lot and I think it is very important that her talk will be heard in other languages as well. I am writing these things both as a psychoanalyst and as a daughter of a father who survived the holocaust. Thank you Mira.
As Harvey said, we should talk more.
Thank you so much Mira and Harvey for this moving and useful podcast for the colleagues that are helping the people that are suffering from this war.