Cultures under Siege

Collective violence changes the perpetrators, the victims, and the societies in which it occurs. It targets the body, the psyche, and the socio-cultural order. How do people come to terms with these tragic events, and how are cultures affected by massive outbreaks of violence? This book is a groundbreaking collection of essays by anthropologists, psychologists and psychoanalysts, drawing on field research in many different parts of the world. Profiting from an interdisciplinary dialogue, the authors provide provocative, at times deeply troubling, insights into the darker side of humanity, and they also propose new ways of understanding the terrible things that people are capable of doing to each other.

• Violence and trauma are studied in conjunction, rather than separate • The interdisciplinary approach enhances the understanding of these subjects and enriches the collaborating disciplines • Violence and trauma are treated as multi-leveled phenomena which are studied on the social, psychological and cultural level

Introduction; 1. Interdisciplinary perspectives on violence and trauma Marcelo M. Suarez-Orozco and Antonius C. G. M. Robben; Part I. The Management of Collective Trauma: 2. Reflections on the prevalence of the uncanny in social violence Yolanda Gampel; 3. The assault on basic trust: disappearance, protest, and reburial in Argentina Antonius C. G. M. Robben; 4. Mitigating discontents with children in war: an ongoing psychoanalytic inquiry Roberta J. Apfel and Bennett Simon; 5. Child psychotherapy as an instrument in cultural research: treating war-traumatized children in former-Yugoslavia David de Levita; Part II. Cultural Responses to Collective Trauma: 6. The traumatized social self: the Parsi predicament in modern Bombay Tanya M. Luhrmann; 7. Identities under siege: immigration stress and social mirroring among the children of immigrants Carola Suarez-Orozco; 8. Modern Greek and Turkish identities and the psychodynamics of Greek-Turkish relations Vamik D. Volkan and Norman Itzkowitz; 9. The violence of non-recognition: becoming a ‘conscious’ Muslim woman in Turkey Katherine P. Ewing; Epilogue Robert A. LeVine.

‘This book deserves to be read, not only by anthropologists and psychoanalysts, but also by every rational being … the book manages to indicate how an interdisciplinary approach can be developed between psychoanalysis and anthropology, leading to enriched understanding of the effects of collective trauma and violence.’ South African Journal of International Affairs

‘… an important shared project of understanding how the trauma of social violence not only damages cultures and individuals, but is also incorporated into their self-image.’ Psychotherapy and Politics International