IRRC No. 910
Interview with Boris Cyrulnik
Reading time 56 min read
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Abstract
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.