“Don’t You See I’m Burning?”
Fascism Amnesia and the Failure of Witnessing
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21308332 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jill Salberg (0000-0001-8071-3657, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 60 |
| Issue | 3-4 |
| Pages | 209-220 |
| Publication date | 2024-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Contemporary Psychoanalysis (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0010-7530 • E-ISSN: 2330-9091 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00107530.2025.2540735 |
| OpenAlex | W4414954988 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 7 |
This article suggests that “fascism amnesia” has occurred when the world no longer remembers enough about the antecedents and repercussions of its history. This nonmemory can fail to prevent its recurrence. Reviewing what is happening in the United States and in the world, the author argues that these are all examples of reemerging deeply oppressive fascistic forces and the ways that regimes of power exert control over minorities, their most vulnerable citizens. The author further believes that the forgetting of history can be understood as part of the phenomenon of transgenerational transmission of trauma, where the unfinished work or wounds of one generation get passed down to the next. Further, it will be argued that to break or interrupt this transmission, a bearing witness needs to happen. An example is offered of the Abuelas of Plaza de Mayo in Argentina, whose ongoing mourning and the persistence of memory offers successive generations an entry into the process of “continuing mentalizing.” Such witnessing needs to be in the service of defying and refusing fascistic amnesia
Amnesia · Anterograde amnesia · Freudian theory · Retrograde amnesia · German History and Society · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |