The Holocaust as a Trope for “Managed” Social Change

This paper explores some shared psychological meanings of Holocaust imagery (Primo Levi, The Drowned and the Saved, 1998) invoked by people experiencing downsizing, re-engineering, restructuring, managed care, and other forms of “managed” social change in the United States. I present a brief case example to illustrate how the evidence for the Holocaust metaphor lies in the action that carries the seed of its emotional plausibility. It is my countertransference that leads me (and others) from experience of action to its symbolization. By listening via my own unconscious, I can comprehend and hold onto others’ projection of Holocaust imagery and language onto contemporary American workplace cataclysm.