Holocaust review and bearing witness as a coping mechanism of an elderly holocaust survivor

Bar-Tur and Levy-Shiff present a case study of a survivor who is relatively mentally healthy. She maintains a high level of well-being via a frequent "witnessing" of her experiences. This active and public engagement serves as a kind of llfe review. The authors argue that although it may have started as the patient's attempt to justify her own survival, it has given her a sense of mastery and control which serves not only to find meaning in the past, but also helps her cope with the losses of aging, perhaps diminishing narcissism and sustaining an attachment to a wider circle of humanity as a kind of symbolic family. This case study sets us on the right track: Most Holocaust survivors are amazing and inspirational pictures of mental health, rather than pictures of hopeless mental illness.