Psychoanalysis, Trauma and Armed Conflict

This research project aims to develop a study on the relationship between psychoanalysis, trauma, and armed conflict, exploring what persists in the subject beyond the destructive forces of war. Drawing from clinical psychoanalysis, cultural theory, and psychosocial studies, the project examines how extreme violence impacts subjectivity, memory, and symbolic processes, while also investigating the conditions under which something irreducible in human experience resists erasure.
The study engages critically with psychoanalytic traditions (Freud, Ferenczi, Lacan, Winnicott) alongside contemporary debates on trauma, cultural memory, and political violence. It addresses themes such as the transmission of trauma, the limits of representation, the role of testimony, and the ethical position of listening in contexts marked by war.
Grounded in the Colombian context but articulated within a broader international framework, the project seeks to contribute to interdisciplinary discussions on trauma and conflict, while reaffirming the relevance of psychoanalysis for understanding both individual and collective dimensions of violence and its aftermath.
This research will follow a qualitative, theoretically oriented clinical-hermeneutic approach, based on an extensive review of psychoanalytic literature and key institutional documents, including those produced by the Colombian Truth Commission, the National Center for Historical Memory, and the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), among others.
General Objective
To analyze the relationship between psychoanalysis, trauma, and armed conflict, examining the subjective, symbolic, and ethical dimensions of war, and articulating what persists in human experience beyond its destructive effects.
Specific Objectives
• Examine the impact of armed conflict on subjectivity from a psychoanalytic perspective.
• Analyze the concept of trauma in Freud, Ferenczi, Lacan, and Winnicott.
• Explore the limits of representation and language in traumatic experiences.
• Investigate the role of testimony, memory, and narrative.
• Articulate the ethical position of listening in psychoanalysis.
• Analyze the intergenerational transmission of trauma.
• Examine the individual and collective trauma intersections.
• Explore the symbolic processes, art, and cultural responses.

Publication of a book in an indexed international academic journal
Participation in national and international academic events