On a shared intergenerational experience--a short-term intervention with a Holocaust survivor as part of a lengthy course of therapy.

The article describes a short-term therapeutic relationship between a Holocaust survivor and a younger therapist, whose family members experienced the Holocaust themselves. It took place against the background of the patient's complex relationships with her parents and brother in the past, with her husband, daughters and grandchildren in the present, as well as of traumatic experiences during the Holocaust. The author relates in particular to the force and place of the thoughts, fantasies, memories and physical sensations that assailed him throughout the process in which he formulated the verbal interventions he found himself making. The purpose of this article is to emphasize the relational aspects of this therapeutic relationship and the fruitful intergenerational encounter and its role in shaping the nature of the therapeutic interaction.