Finding One's Voice

Survivors of tragedy are often robbed of their voice. Shame and fear following trauma encourage silence and a tendency to hide. Dissociation, initially a coping mechanism, leads to discontinuity and fragmentation and ultimately undermines one's sense of identity. Telling one's story is an empowering experience that potentially restores a sense of continuity and wholeness.The author, a child survivor of the Holocaust, a psychoanalyst, and the author of an award-winning memoir, draws on her personal experience to highlight various aspects of autobiographical narrative and its potential for facilitating the healing process.Although relatively few psychoanalysts have written their memoirs, a number have used their own lives disguised as case material. Further, there is a current trend in clinical psychoanalysis toward greater personal expression and self-disclosure. The impact of analyst self-revelations on the therapeutic process has been researched by Dr. Richman and is further discussed in this presentation.