This article explores the notion of collective trauma and its transgenerational transmission, focusing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a paradigmatic case. Drawing from psychoanalytic theory, historical analysis, and political thought, it investigates how unresolved trauma can shape collective identity, foster defensive ideologies, and even justify violence. The paper engages with key concepts such as Nachträglichkeit, cryptic memory, narcissistic contract, and acting out, offering a fram…
Read moreThis article explores the notion of collective trauma and its transgenerational transmission, focusing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a paradigmatic case. Drawing from psychoanalytic theory, historical analysis, and political thought, it investigates how unresolved trauma can shape collective identity, foster defensive ideologies, and even justify violence. The paper engages with key concepts such as Nachträglichkeit, cryptic memory, narcissistic contract, and acting out, offering a framework to understand how traumatic legacies, when unprocessed, may reproduce the very patterns of oppression originally suffered. Rather than positing a deterministic view, the analysis emphasizes the necessity of symbolic elaboration, narrative work, and critical memory as pathways to interrupt cycles of historical repetition and open new perspectives for collective healing and political reconciliation.