Dark Traces of the Past: Psychoanalysis and Historical Thinking

The relationship between historical studies and psychoanalysis remains an open debate that is full of tension, in both a positive and negative sense. In particular the following question has not been answered satisfactorily: what distinguishes a psychoanalytical-oriented study of historical realities from a historical psychoanalysis? Skepticism and fear of collaboration dominate on both sides. Initiating a productive dialogue between historical studies and psychoanalysis seems to be plagued by ignorance, and at times, a sense of helplessness. Interdisciplinary collaborations are rare. Empirical research, formulation of theory, and the development of methods are essentially carried out within the conventional disciplinary boundaries. This volume undertakes to overcome these limitations by combining psychoanalytical and historical perspectives and thus exploring the underlying "unconscious" dimensions and by informing academic and nonacademic forms of historical memory. Moreover, it puts special emphasis on transgenerational forms of remembrance, on the notion of trauma as a key concept in this field, and on case studies that point the way to further research.

Jurgen Straub is Professor at the Ruhr University Bochum (Faculty of Social Science, Chair for Social Theory and Social Psychology), one of the principal investigators of the Research Department Center for Religious Studies (CERES) and member of its board. He was Professor of Intercultural Communication at the Chemnitz University of Technology (TUC) until March 2008, research director and member of the management committee at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities Essen (Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen, KWI) from October 1999 to September 2001. Straub's general research topics are cultural psychology, intercultural communication and competence, violence in modern societies, methodology of qualitative research, psychological and philosophical anthropology, social theory and cultural studies, action theory, identity theory, biography research, and historical consciousness.

Jorn Rusen is Professor emeritus of General History and Historical Culture at the University of Witten/Herdecke (Germany) and Senior Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities at Essen. His research interests include: theory and methodology of history, history of historiography, modern intellectual history, historical consciousness, historical learning; processes of sense-generation, strategies of intercultural comparison and communication, general issues of cultural orientation in modern societies, and intercultural humanism.