The Belgo-Belgian conflict in individual narratives: Psychodynamics of trauma in the history of Belgium

Abstract

On the basis of interviews, we highlight important historical elements with potential traumatic implications in order to understand some of the psychological roots of the current conflict-ridden relationship between French-speaking and Flemish Belgian citizens. We suggest that this conflict has a complex psychodynamic structure. Due to former experiences of shame, humiliation, disdain and contempt, two concomitant but asymmetrical defensive processes can be observed: repression in the French-language group, dissociation or rejection in the Flemish group. In particular, we hypothesize that the war experiences traumatized the Flemish identity in a complex way, generating an internal defensive pressure characterized by dissociation. The impact of these psychological processes on the current political situation is explored.

Keywords

Belgo-Belgian trauma individual narratives psychodynamics psychoanalytical concept of ‘après-coup’

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

André

(2009) Les 100 mots de la psychanalyse. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

Charcot

(1892[1885–87]) Œuvres complètes de J.M. Charcot: Leçons sur les maladies du système nerveux. Paris: Bataille.

Charcot

(1887–88) Leçons du Mardi à la Salpêtrière. Paris: Delahaye and Lecrosnier.

Cook

(2002) Belgium: A History. New York: Peter Lang.

Dujardin

(2005) La Belgique occupée. In : Dumoulin

Gérard

Van den Wijngaert

Dujardin

(eds) Nouvelle Histoire de Belgique: Volume 2, 1905>– 1950. Paris: Editions Complexe, 95–7.

Erikson

(1968) Identity: Youth and Crisis. London: Faber and Faber.

Freud

(1955[1920]) Beyond the pleasure principle. In: Strachey

(ed.) The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. XVIII). London: Hogarth Press, 1–64.

Freud

(1957[1915]) Repression. In: Strachey

(ed.) The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. XIV). London: Hogarth Press, 141–58.

Freud

(1962[1894]) The neuro-psychoses of defence. In: Strachey

(ed.) The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. III). London: Hogarth Press, 45–61.

10.

Huyse

Dhondt

Depuydt

(1991) Onverwerkt verleden, collaboratie en repressie in Belgie 1942–1952. Leuven: Kritak.

11.

Kingston

(1983) A theoretical context for shame. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 64: 213–26.

12.

Lacan

(1988) The Seminar, Book I. Freud’s Papers on Technique, 1953–1954. New York: Norton and Company.

13.

Laplanche

(2002) ‘Après-coup’. In : de Mijolla

(ed.) Dictionnaire International de la Psychanalyse. Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 121–123.

14.

Laplanche

Pontalis

(1967) The Language of Psycho-Analysis. New York: Norton and Company.

15.

Roussillon

Chabert

Ciccone

Ferrant

Georgieff

Roman

(2007) Manuel de psychologie et de psychopathologie. Issy-les-Moulineaux: Elsevier-Masson.

16.

Van den Braembussche

(2002) The silence of Belgium: Taboo and trauma in Belgian memory. Yale French Studies 102: 35–52.

17.

Verougstraete

(2009) Récits de la vie dans les relations Belgo-Belges – Présentation d’entretiens. Communications Ecole Belge de Psychanalyse 48: 55–60.

18.

Vos

(2002) Reconstructions of the past in Belgium and Flanders. In: Coppieters

Huysseune

(eds) Secession, History and the Social Sciences. Brussels: VUB University Press, 179–206.

19.

Yorke

(1990) The development and functioning of the sense of shame. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child 45: 377–409.