National nightmare
M. Gerard Fromm
October 3, 2017 DOI: 10.4324/9781315267173-8 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Key points | Argues that descendants of Nazis, though not guilty in deed, are affected by transmitted guilt, shame, and horror, and that a 1930s dream journal from ordinary German citizens illustrates how massive social trauma and malignant authoritarianism produced collective dissociation and licensed horrific destructiveness. |
Abstract
This chapter reports on the themes and process of a conference organized by Thomas Kohut and the author through the Erikson Institute at the Austen Riggs Center. The title of the conference was “The Legacy of Perpetrator Trauma in Groups and Families” as experienced by descendants of Nazis, generations not guilty in deed but affected by powerful feelings of guilt, shame, and horror by association. The chapter examines the nature of the transmission of this trauma, the forms it takes and some of the group dynamics that play out in relation to it. It also explores dream processes of the perpetrators’ era through a remarkable dream journal from the 1930s. A natural experiment in what is called “social dreaming,” this record of ordinary German citizens’ dreams illuminates the steady assault on a person’s inner life and the way that massive social trauma and malignant authoritarianism contribute to profound, collective dissociation and the licensing of horrific destructiveness.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dreaming: a conceptual framework for philosophy of mind and empirical research | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Metaphor and hyperassociativity: the imagination mechanisms behind emotion assimilation in sleep and dreaming | 2015 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Varieties of Lucid Dreaming Experience | 2000 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Experimental Research on Dreaming: State of the Art and Neuropsychoanalytic Perspectives | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Neurobiology of Consciousness: Lucid Dreaming Wakes Up | 2009 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |