IRRC No. 910

Interview with Boris Cyrulnik

Reading time 56 min read
Download PDF
This article is also available in

Boris Cyrulnik is a neuropsychiatrist who is known in France for having developed and popularized the concept of resilience. Born to a Jewish family in Bordeaux in 1937, he lost both his parents during the Second World War and, at the age of 6, escaped deportation himself by hiding during a round-up of Jews organized by the Nazis. His recollections of that event, forty years after the end of the war, provided the foundations for a reflection on post-war traumatic memory. In this interview for the Review, he talks about the relationship between memory, trauma and resilience, both at an individual and a collective level.

Download PDF

Continue reading #IRRC No. 910

All articles

Interview with Boris Cyrulnik author:

56 min read

When children remember: A history of the Tutsi genocide through the eyes of children (1994–2006) author: Hélène Dumas

47 min read

Opinion note: …And if there was also a duty to forget, how would we think about history then? author: David Rieff

22 min read

Eradicating war memories: Neuroscientific reality and ethical concerns author: Marijn C.W. Kroes, Rain Liivoja

64 min read

Does individual and collective remembrance of past violence impede or foster reconciliation? From Argentina to Sri Lanka author: Jill Stockwell

64 min read

Perspectives on memory, forgiveness and reconciliation in Cambodia’s post-Khmer Rouge society author: Phuong Pham, Mychelle Balthazard, Niamh Gibbons, Patrick Vinck

52 min read

Declining ethnic relations in post-war Liberia: The transmission of violent memories author: Aaron Weah

41 min read

The role of freedom of expression in the construction of historical memory author: German Parra Gallego

60 min read

The role of experience and the place of history in the writings of ICRC presidents author: Cedric Cotter

43 min read

Opinion note: A personal experience in Turkey, Iran and China: The need for the ICRC to adapt in a multipolar world author: Pierre Ryter

24 min read

Heroic memory and contemporary war author: Gilbert Holleufer

52 min read

Cultural memory and identity in the context of war: Experiential, place-based and political concerns author: Danielle Drozdzewski, Emma Waterton, Shanti Sumartojo

51 min read

More about International Review of the Red Cross, Memory and war, Second World War, Traumatic memory

article IRRC No. 914

Editorial, Emerging voices: Increasing the diversity of voices featured in the International Review of the Red Cross author: Bruno Demeyere

5 min read
article IRRC No. 911

Lex Innocentium (697 AD): Adomnán of Iona – father of Western jus in bello author: James W. Houlihan

40 min read
article IRRC No. 911

Lex Innocentium (697 AD): Adomnán of Iona – father of Western jus in bello author: James W. Houlihan

40 min read