title: Helping traumatized people survive: a psychoanalytic intervention in a contaminated site.
abstract: Psychoanalytic literature on extreme traumatization usually distinguishes between natural catastrophes and man-made catastrophes. While the first ones are usually sensed as nature's ferocity, fate, or God's will, the second ones are experienced as a volountary and violent attack aimed at disrupting other human beings. In this paper we focus on man-made disasters caused by a profit-driven logic. When traumatization is due to irresponsible actions perpetrated by the owners of the major economic resource of a community, it deeply affects the identity of the group, entailing the loss of basic trust and lively parts of the Self. In such a situation, where the whole community is severely traumatized, psychoanalytic group therapy seems to be the most suitable setting: it allows to place the historization of the event and the creation of multiple narratives of somato-psychic suffering. Trust and faith are two crucial factors in the encounter with patients lacking a sense of vitality. The working through of each one through the group field is an essential forerunner to the construction of a recovered sense of faith and reliability that precedes the onset of a true new-beginning.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Turin Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Fanny
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Guglielmucci
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Turin Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Isabella G
authors.initials: IG
authors.lastname: Franzoi
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Turin Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Chiara P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Barbasio
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Turin Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca V
authors.initials: FV
authors.lastname: Borgogno
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Turin Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonella
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Granieri
keywords: basic trust; collective trauma; contaminated site; mourning; psychoanalytic group