Standing Against Silence: Czeslaw Milosz and The Poetry of Witness. Issue 1 (2nd January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Shaddock, David
• Is Part Of: Psychoanalysis, self and context. Volume 15:Issue 1(2020)
• Page Start: 100
• Page End: 105
• Publication Date: 2020-01-02
• Subjects: Poetry of witness -- trauma -- Czelaw Milosz -- the witness function in therapy -- restoration of the third; Psychoanalysis -- Periodicals; Psychotherapy -- Periodicals; Self psychology -- Periodicals; 155.205
• DOI: 10.1080/24720038.2019.1692022
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2472-0038

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This paper explores what light an examination of the poetry of witness to trauma can shed on the treatment of trauma victims. In particular it looks at how the cultural act of writing poetry can restore a sense of a third to traumatized people. The paper examines in detail: "Dedication" by Czeslaw Milosz. Two aspects of the author's approach to the subject emerge: (1) the author links the details of the trauma experience to details in the non-traumatized world, and (2) the author describes his own limitations and inadequacy as witnesses. A case example is offered of a couple where one partner suffered an extremely traumatic childhood is described. In the end, the therapist and the husband admit their helplessness in the face of the wife's trauma, and this provides a kind of healing.