Psychoanalytic Pure War: Interactions with the Post-Apocalyptic Unconscious

Abstract

The concept of "pure war" refers to the potential of a culture to destroy itself completely. The pure war condition, following the September 11th, World Trade Center attacks, has been brought to consciousness. The author explores how it manifests itself in society, in character, and specifically in the psychoanalytic treatment of a 39-yr-old female patient whose dynamics highlight significant aspects of the pure war state. The case illustrates the role of the analyst and the psychotherapeutic processes in the treatment of patients who live with an ever-threatening sense of the pure war lying just below the surface of our cultural veneer. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)