Therapists and thinkers on the new terrorism
Leclerc researches six women artists who were Nazi prisoners
Scholar and art therapist Josée Leclerc co-organized, with the sociology department of the Université du Québec à Montréal, a conference on how terrorism affects social consciousness and the unconscious mind.
Called Terreur, terrorismes et processus inconscients, the conference, at UQAM from Oct. 27 to 29, featured controversial French philosopher Jean Baudrillard.
The presentations addressed the nature of terrorism, its place in modern politics, its often devastating effect on its victims, and efforts, pharmacological as well as clinical, to alleviate their pain.
Leclerc, who is chair of the Department of Creative Arts Therapies at Concordia, said the jumping-off point for the conference was 9/11, and the way the bombing of the New York World Trade Centre heightened many people’s sense of vulnerability.
Her presentation at the conference was titled “Quand la mort dessine,” or When Death Draws.
In her research, she is examining the work of six female artists who survived the Nazi prisons and concentration camps of the Second World War.
She is trying to uncover some of the survival strategies contained in the art produced by these women, all six of whom were deported from France. Only one is still living.
Leclerc focused on these six artists after noticing the scarcity of scholarly work done on not only artistic representations of the deportation, but on the art created by women.
France Hamelin, for example, depicted the sisterhood many women found in prison, while Jeannette L’Herminier drew her fellow inmates as elegant yet faceless figures.
“In the camps, the inmates were treated as objects by the Nazis, as if they were transparent and had no existence,” Leclerc explained recently to the Office of Research publication The Innovator.
“In psychoanalysis and art therapy, the gaze of the ‘other’ is paramount to the creation and survival of the self.
“Being recognized is one of the dimensions that will create a sense of self-worthiness. Thus the drawing of the ‘other’ served as a testament to the trauma these women experienced and a powerful reflection of the resistance of the body, the psyche and the creativity against annihilation.”
Leclerc said her findings have relevance to the field of art therapy, as well as to her work as a professor and practicing art therapist.
“Identifying the survival strategies depicted in these artists’ works will provide new insights for art therapists who work with survivors of trauma.”
It will also add another layer to the scholarship being done on art therapy and trauma, as well as on the art of the Shoah.