TY - JOUR
T1 - Suffering and liberation in the age of therapy
T2 - Germany’s ‘grandchildren of the Second World War’
AU - Jakob, Lina
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016, © The British Association of Hand Therapists Ltd 2016.
PY - 2017/12/1
Y1 - 2017/12/1
N2 - This article focuses on the ‘Kriegsenkel’ – the German ‘grandchildren of the Second World War’. Born in the 1960s and 1970s, Kriegsenkel feel that through processes of transgenerational transmission unresolved war experiences were passed on to them by their families and are largely responsible for their emotional problems – from depression and anxiety disorders to relationship break-ups and career problems. I explore how, after decades of public taboos on the suffering of the majority population, this emergent identity is constructed and addressed entirely within the framework of Western therapeutic culture. Sociologists have long critiqued therapy culture for promoting political disengagement and attitudes of victimhood. Based on more than 80 ethnographic interviews, I argue that this view needs to be moderated to account for the ways in which individuals use therapeutic culture to exert agency and devise strategies to actively deal with emotional distress in an environment where wartime suffering is considered politically sensitive.
AB - This article focuses on the ‘Kriegsenkel’ – the German ‘grandchildren of the Second World War’. Born in the 1960s and 1970s, Kriegsenkel feel that through processes of transgenerational transmission unresolved war experiences were passed on to them by their families and are largely responsible for their emotional problems – from depression and anxiety disorders to relationship break-ups and career problems. I explore how, after decades of public taboos on the suffering of the majority population, this emergent identity is constructed and addressed entirely within the framework of Western therapeutic culture. Sociologists have long critiqued therapy culture for promoting political disengagement and attitudes of victimhood. Based on more than 80 ethnographic interviews, I argue that this view needs to be moderated to account for the ways in which individuals use therapeutic culture to exert agency and devise strategies to actively deal with emotional distress in an environment where wartime suffering is considered politically sensitive.
KW - Germany
KW - Kriegsenkel
KW - identity construction
KW - long-term impact of the Second World War
KW - therapeutic culture
KW - transmission of trauma
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85034452891&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1466138116674735
DO - 10.1177/1466138116674735
M3 - Article
SN - 1466-1381
VL - 18
SP - 450
EP - 470
JO - Ethnography
JF - Ethnography
IS - 4
ER -