Network TTM: Trauma, Trust and Memory (2013 - 2016)
The project has established a transnational network for interdisciplinary and psychoanalytic trauma research, sustained and supported by young scientists. It contributes to the overcoming of individual and social experiences of traumatization, and creates conditions for subjective and collective reconciliation. Research initiatives from Bosnia-Herzegovina (Republika Srpska and Federation), Serbia and Bulgaria have been linked with German and international psychoanalytic trauma-research projects: Psychotherapy research, epidemiological studies, basic studies of trauma experience and processing, and – as a special feature of the network – studies on the cultural processing of collective trauma by means of literature and film analyses.
Network Trauma - Trust - Memory
A DAAD-supported research network in Central and South Eastern Europe
The project has established a transnational network for interdisciplinary and psychoanalytic trauma research, sustained and supported by young scientists. It contributes to the overcoming of individual and social experiences of traumatization, and creates conditions for subjective and collective reconciliation.
Research initiatives from Bosnia-Herzegovina (Republika Srpska and Federation), Serbia and Bulgaria have been linked with German and international psychoanalytic trauma-research projects: Psychotherapy research, epidemiological studies, basic studies of trauma experience and processing, and – as a special feature of the network – studies on the cultural processing of collective trauma by means of literature and film analyses.
The transfer of clinical and cultural-studies competencies represents a specific feature of the IPU Berlin. Its project team is highly experienced in these fields, as well as in hosting and moderating scientific dialogues.
In its first two years, it proved possible to set up and conduct mutual project audits, project-related training events and pan-regional presentations at the summer school, a coordinator conference, a multi-part lecture series in two countries, a fellow-training event and three Sur‐Place scholarships on the theme of the research network utilizing different methodical approaches in Bosnia‐Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria and Germany. The synergies gained in decentralised research efforts were utilized in mutual and external training processes (fellow-training events, workshops) in order to validate instruments that adequately fulfill the complex subject of trauma and trauma processing, as well as to develop cross-method triangulation perspectives and design QM mechanisms, and prepare future options for bilateral third-party funding proposals. Through this cooperation, it was possible to establish a transregional and interdisciplinary research network. The latter evaluates, specifies, and publishes research findings on a regional level and addresses novel, mutual research questions on the multilateral level.
The Summer School included over 60 students and professors from Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany and Serbia. The idea of the school was to bring together students and professors of the TTM partner universities in a setting where they could teach each other and exchange ideas. The summer school consisted of five days of classes for the social trauma course delivered by lecturers and professors from the participating universities, four plenary lectures, a two day training for Operationalized Psychodynamic diagnostics system (OPD training) and a number of research discussion groups devoted to different topics moderated by the TTM lecturers.
Keynote lecturers were:
Andreas Hamburger
Aleksandar Dimitrijević
Camellia Hancheva
Annette Streeck-Fischer
The OPD training was delivered by the professor Annette Streeck-Fischer from the International Psychoanalytic University Berlin. Social activities at the Summer School included a SCUBA diving session at the Čair swimming pool and a visit to three historical monuments – the 19th century Scull tower in Niš, the Red Cross (or „12. oktobar“) WW2 concentration camp memorial and the Šumarice WW2 memorial near Kragujevac.
During the school student research projects were improved and research cooperation between students and professors was enhanced. Fruitful discussions took place in continuation of the plenary lectures. Students obtained new skills and ideas, both as result of the OPD training delivered, and in the discussion groups where thoughts for further cooperation and research were developed.
The Summer School was dedicated to the multiple effects of war and comparable socio-traumatic experiences in all walks of life and in all different spheres of social, economic, political and educational realities. About 30 international lecturers from the field of psychoanalysis, social psychology, history, linguistics, literature, arts, education and pedagogy provided their scholarly inputs to the group of 70 young researchers, who presented their own ongoing studies and discussed them with the lecturers.
The distinguished professor Vamik Volkan was one of the plenary speakers with the lecture: “From Natural Disasters to Ethnic Cleansing: Massive Trauma and Societal Responses.”
In addition to a rich variety of different workshops, speakers and perspectives, the inter-institutional master level study course "Social Trauma" was provided for younger students as an introduction to this field of research and practice, so urgently needed in the region.
Students received research supervision from professionals and had the opportunity to interact and exchange in small reflection groups and get to know the city of Sarajevo in joint activities. Additionally, the summer school 2015 served as platform for the TTM network exchange.
Plenary lectures:
“From Natural Disasters to Ethnic Cleansing: Massive Trauma and Societal Responses” by Vamik Volkan (University of Virginia)
“Man-made, Man-continued. Social and Genocidal Traumas and Specific Trauma Category” by Andreas Hamburger (IPU Berlin)
“The Role of Education in Post-conflict Societies: between Reconciliation and Deeper Inter-group Antagonism” by Adila Pašalić Kreso (University of Sarajevo)
“Images of War: the Place of the War Past of the Parents in the Second Generation’s Identity” by Kalina Yordanova (New Bulgarian University, Sofia)
Public Lectures:
“Enforcing and Sustaining Prejudices and Stereotypes through Media Discourse in Bosnia-Herzegovina”, Merima Osmankadić (Uni Sarajevo)
“The Reconciliation Processes in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the 'Gender Issue': Challenges with Postulated Narrations and Actions”, Zlatiborka Popov Momčinović (University of East Sarajevo)
“Beyond Communicative Pathology of Terrorism: Trauma, Trust and Dialogue in Post 9/11 Fiction”, Faruk Bajraktarević (University of Sarajevo)
“On Memory, Politics and Art in Okinawa after WWII“, Jasmina Gavrankapetanović (University of Sarajevo)
“Social Construction and Deconstruction of Trauma in Post-conflict Societies: an Anthropological Perspective”, Hariz Halilović (RMIT University, Melbourne)
“Jokes, War and Genocide: Working Psychoanalytically in Bosnia and Herzegovina“, Damir Arsenijević (University of Tuzla, Bosnien)
Please find the program here.
The Summer School consisted of two overlapping components – an Adult Attachment Projective Picture System training held by Anna Buchheim, and the proper summer school. The program comprised numerous plenary lectures, student presentations and research project discussions, as well as research studies that were carried out on-site.
28 students with extraordinary study achievements or research proposals had been suggested for participation by the node leaders. Upon arrival, each student was assigned a supervisor who was offering consultations and help with preparing of the presentation and report throughout the summer school. The students had the opportunity to work in parallel groups and on different topics of their interest. The results were presented in a final group presentation. A very special moment of the summer school was when students and scholars from different countries and ethnicities visited the Kozara WW2 memorial park near Banja Luka and afterwards had dinner in a restaurant on the memorial grounds.
The summer school 2014 in Banja Luka was a fruitful exchange of scholars and students from Bosnia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Hungary and Germany.
Plenary lectures:
“Bindung and Social Trauma” Anna Buchheim (University of Innsbruck, Austria)
“Posttraumatic nightmares, evidence and clinical application” by Lutz Wittman (IPU Berlin)
„Bosnia and Herzegovina as a stage for three parallel and conflicting historical memories“ by Dubravko Lovrenović (Academy of Science, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina)
“Do we all share the same traits? Can the concept of Kolmogorov complexity make a useful contribution to the study of human behavior?” by Vladimir Hedrih (University of Nis, Serbia)
“After Babel – Co-Constructing a research network in a former battlefield” by Andreas Hamburger (IPU Berlin)
The summer school lasted for 4 days and was partially open to the public. The program included five lectures and eight presentations of TTM research projects - four of them from Serbia, three from Bulgaria and one from Bosnia. The program furthermore comprised six workshops which were designed to facilitate and develop project capacity and research potential. One of the main goals of the summer school was to enhance interaction between professors, project demonstrators and students. The organizers managed to create a vivid atmosphere where participants had the opportunity to improve their ongoing projects. Two psychoanalysis case supervisions were held by Horst Kächele and Andreas Hamburger This was a unique chance for students and other participants to learn from professionals and discuss important issues of the psychotherapeutic process. Interconnections between different regions were personalized by informal social events. A brilliant closing of the summer school was the dinner during a Danube and Sava cruise trip where plans for future projects and joined research were made.
Lectures were:
"Psychoanalysis Meets Neouroscience", Svenja Taubner (IPU Berlin)
"Attachment in Families with Alcohol Problems", Zaklina Terzova (Uni Sofia)
"Attachment, Empathy and Emotional Intelligence in Juvenile Delinquents", Sonja Milojević (Uni Belgrade)
"Research of Mothers' Attachment Patterns, Mentalization and Cognitive Capacities and Their Preschool Children's Socio-emotional and Cognitive Development", Milena Arandjelović & Ana Perović (Uni Belgrade)
"Do Infants Perform Better on Object Categorization Tasks with Mother or with Experimenter?", Slavica Tutnjević (University of Banja Luka)
further lectures were:
"Consumer Oriented Psychoanalysis", Horst Kächele, IPU Berlin
"What Makes Psychoanalysis Effective?", Horst Kächele, IPU Berlin
"Attachment Styles and Parental (Interpersonal) Acceptance and Rejection", Nadia Koltceva (Uni Sofia)
"Attachment and Mentalization in Persons with PTSD", Vedrana Berlekovic (Belgrade University)
"Moving into Psychotraumatology - a Case Report", Lutz Wittmann, (IPU Berlin)
"The applicability of GEVA", Serge Lecours, (Université de Montréal)
"Do Patients' Attachment Status, Verbal Elaboration of Affect and Reflective Functioning Predict Psychotherapy Outcomes?", Jelena Vidić (Uni Belgrade)
"A Research Idea on Some Cases of Analogy-making in Borderline Patients", Petia Milcheva (NBU Sofia)
Interdisciplinary Psychoanalytic Trauma Research in an Middle South East Europe Research Network
Panel, IPA 2013 Prague congress
In 2013, seven researchers from four countries coming from the International Psychoanalytic (IPU) University Berlin in Germany, the New Bulgarian University (NBU) Sofia in Bulgaria, the University of Belgrade in Serbia and the University of Banja Luka in Bosnia-Herzegovina met in Prague to discuss psychoanalytic and academic research.
The main topic combined the construction and research issues of a transregional MSEE network of psychoanalytic and interdisciplinary trauma research. Panelists were presenting their current projects and discuss means and methods for linking their efforts in order to jointly facing the pain of political traumatization. The idea was to establish the kernel of an interdisciplinary exchange, that might well the offspring of institutional alliances to integrate psychoanalysis to academic psychology.
Panelists were:
Andreas Hamburger (chair)
Nikola Atanassov (presenter)
Aleksandar Dimitrijevic (presenter)
Tatjana Stefanovic-Stanojevic (presenter)
Annette Streeck-Fischer (discussant)
Berlin Conference Trauma and Identity (TTM)
December 5 to 8, 2013, IPU Berlin
At the beautiful site right next to the river Spree and close to the Bellevue castle, professors, researchers, experts, practitioners and students coming from Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria, Germany, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK met to discuss Trauma and Identity.
The program comprised lectures, workshops, a fishbowl-discussion as well as a public panel, small and big group discussions. On a tour to the Jewish Museum, which was guided by audiotapes, the topic social trauma was discussed with regard to the history of the city and the public space.
During the small groups, the participants were able to discuss the TTM Fellow´s presentations. A Supervisor was assigned to each group. In this way, they took benefit from the interdisciplinary and trans-regional peer exchange.
The main goal was to teach an interdisciplinary perspective on trauma and identity and its clinical and societal consequences while exchanging information about different research projects. It was successfully achieved.
Speakers were:
Nikola Atanassov
Esmina Avdibegovic
Anna Buchheim
Christian Curth
Veronika Debus
Amra Delic
Aleksandar Dimitrijevic
Lilli Gast
Andreas Hamburger
Camellia Hancheva
