Suffering and liberation in the age of therapy
Germany's 'grandchildren of the Second World War
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2402560 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Lina Jakob (0000-0002-9659-0353, Australian National University School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australia, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 450-470 |
| Publication date | 2017-12-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Ethnography (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1466-1381 • E-ISSN: 1741-2714 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1466138116674735 |
| OpenAlex | W2537873677 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 34 |
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
Agency (philosophy · Anxiety · Criminology · Disengagement theory · Distress · Ethnography · German · Identity (music · Political science · Politics · Population · Psychiatry · Psychotherapist · Social science · Sociology · World War II · Anthropology · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · European history and politics · Gender Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Law · Medicine · Psychology
Saving the Modern Soul
In Therapy We Trust
Discipline and Punish
The culture of narcissism
Inventing our Selves
Die geteilte Vergangenheit
Germans as Victims?
The Empire of Trauma
Codependent Forevermore
Inventing Ourselves
Why the self is empty
The Harmony of Illusions
The triumph of the therapeutic
You don't need a prescription to go gluten-free
Feminism, Therapeutic Culture, and the Holocaust in the United States
Governing the Soul - a Quarter of a Century On
Self-Help Literature and the Making of an Illness Identity
Surviving a Distant Past
The Talking Cure in Everyday Life
Toward an Ethnography of Silence
| Highly cited | No |
|---|