Psychoanalysis for a new humanism: Embodied testimony, connectedness, memory and forgiveness for a “persistence of the human”

In proposing a refounding of psychoanalysis within a humanist perspective, the author suggests a comparison between Elie Wiesel’s discussion of concepts such as witnessing, testimony, and memory as redemption, and Sandor Ferenczi’s idea of the therapist as “benevolent and useful witness,” who, thanks to his/her true empathic and committed participation, in contrast to Freud’s neutrality, enables the patient to achieve real awareness of the split parts within him- or herself, as well as an integration of the fragmentation due to trauma. Against “indifference,” the practice of connectedness, responsibility, memory, love, and forgiveness as true elaboration of trauma and “going beyond” are proposed as tools towards a “persistence of the human” in a world of increasing dehumanization.