An international conference, titled \u201cPersonal and collective trauma, sharing of points of view and professional experiences,\u201d was to be held in Rome on June 9. It was to be a discussion between Italian, Israeli and British experts about the traumas of October 7 and therapies to help adults and children overcome them. There were no political issues on the table, yet the conference, due to the presence of Israeli professionals, was canceled. This was announced in recent days by the New Israeli Jungian Association, the promoter of the initiative that had obtained the sponsorship of the Italian Association for Analytical Psychology – AIPA and the Italian Association for Research on Analytical Psychology – ARPA.
\nIt was internal criticism from AIPA members that blew it, and so any opportunity for discussion was canceled. \u201cMy colleagues have their own reasons, but it is a missed opportunity,\u201d maintained the psychoanalyst and sociologist Luigi Zoja, president of the international association of Jungian analysts and one of the speakers of the missed conference. \u201cAnalysts should represent a sort of \u00e9lite of the consciousness, intended as awareness. Instead, in this case, for fear of conflicts, there was an abdication from this role,\u201d Zoja, a psychoanalyst and sociologist, explained to Pagine Ebraiche.
\nFor June 9, Zoja had prepared a talk on the \u201cPerception of Jewish identity in a non-Jewish person\u201d, a reflection related to the current atmosphere and the wave of antisemitism that has also spread in Italy since October 7, referring particularly to paranoia. \u201cThe paranoid focuses all his mind on looking for responsibility and then projects it outwards. Responsibilities exist, but they are never personal, the cause is always somebody else. There is always a scapegoat,\u201d stressed Zoja.
\n\u201cThis pathology is not peculiar only to individuals, but also to the masses. It is a phenomenon we find throughout centuries of human history, from tribal societies to Nazism. When there are strong tensions and no processing capacity, our psyche\u2019s simplifying motion leads to dumping everything on the outside, on the other. And it is a contagious phenomenon.\u201d The victim elected to bear the burden of these collective tensions, explained the author of the book Paranoia – The madness that makes history (Bollati Boringhieri), is very often Judaism. And the ongoing dynamics between Israel and Gaza have forcefully resurfaced this mechanism. \u201cThis is beyond political opinions on the current Israeli government, which I personally consider terrible. The current dispute in the Middle East sheds light on infinitely older phenomena.\u201d<\/p>\n