Research

US- GERMANY JOINT PROJECT: THE TRANSFORMATION OF MEMORY ACROSS GENERATIONS: INTERDISCIPLINARY VIEWS

This project in collaboration with Aleida Assmann of Konstanz University, Germany seeks to examine the role of cultural memory in the democratization process.

Assmann is an internationally renowned expert on the transformation of memory within a social and cultural context. A main focus of her research is the study of memory as an individual, collective and cultural phenomenon, including the question of literary representations of trauma and taboo.

My expertise is on the social psychology of injustice. A main focus of my research is on the transmission of memories of injustice, including the question of how emotions and cognitions follow perception of an injustice.

Together, Assmann and I are exploring the role of cultural memory in the democratization process. Though there is a large body of literature on memory and on democratization, the relationship between the transformation of cultural memory and democratization has, as yet, been rarely studied empirically.

The goal of our project is to further our understanding of how countries transitioning from an authoritarian regime to a democratic one transmit and transform cultural memories across generations. The aim is to better understand the relationship between cultural memory and democratization both at the societal and individual level of analyses. At a broader level, our project is intended to establish a base for developing collaborative teaching and research links between German and U.S. universities.

 THE HOLOCAUST LEGACY STUDY AT HARVARD

This project focused on the legacy of the holocaust. It examines the ways in which the legacy of the holocaust impact affect, cognition, and behavior at both the individual and social level. The key idea is that beliefs and feelings about injustice are passed on from generation to generation.

Interviews with children of Nazis and children of Holocaust survivors suggest that memories of a past injustice trigger a range of negative emotions such as anger, contempt, resentment, and guilt. Also, memories of a past injustice elicit beliefs and attitudes about the other group.
         
We proposed that such transgenerational memories would emerge during social interactions. To this end, we organized a first-of-its kind conference for children of Nazis and of Holocaust survivors in the U.S. and a year later replicated the study in Germany. Adult children came face-to-face for a four-day conference at the Harvard Medical Education Center. The discussions were videotaped and later transcribed.

An analysis of group interaction was obtained from a study of content differences, and also from sequential analyses of the data. The data show that Nazis’ children and survivors’ children tend to engage in negative reciprocity. Their parents’ views and feelings were passed down to them, and stand as obstacles to establishing equal moral relations. These findings suggest that, paradoxically, desiring to right a past injustice may result in perpetuating stereotype beliefs and group polarization.

Besides the magazine publications in which the study featured, including Psychology Today. Ms., and Harvard Magazine, the study received coverage in the New York Times, the Boston Herald, and several other daily newspapers.

The study was also featured on many radio and TV shows, including National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, the BBC, the CBS Sunday Morning News, “The Past Between Them” and in NBC Dateline, “Journey to Understanding”.

THE PSYCHOTHERAPY STUDY AT HARVARD

This project, conducted with my husband, Daniel Giacomo, then a Harvard psychiatrist, focused on predictors of psychotherapy outcome. Psychotherapy is a $2.5 billion business in the United States. But, no one can answer the basic question of how therapy works. No one school of therapy has proven superior to another. In fact, studies that attempt to prove the superiority of one method over another have failed. Our project provides much-needed answers to these puzzling questions of what therapists actually do when they are effective.

The study provides a mode of evaluation that focuses not on a particular school of therapy but on the relationship between therapist and patient. Over the past two decades, studies have shown that success in therapy has much to do with this relationship even though none can account for what takes place when therapy works well.  Results from the study show that good therapeutic relationships are far from intuitive. The data demonstrate that successful relationships follow a pattern of behaviors that can be identified and quantified. Often these behaviors have little to do with the rational, theoretical accounts provided in psychotherapy textbooks. Likewise, positive changes in the patient, observed through client feedback and case studies can be described operationally; they involve the process of overcoming feelings of detachment, helplessness, and rigidity and becoming involved, effective, and adaptable.

Our study provides a tool for measuring therapeutic effectiveness and further understanding human transformation.