To Tell to Survive –a Phenomenological Analysis of the Social Communication of Four Sent-Away-Children based on their autobiographical narratives

The stories of survival show how people who were exposed to various forms of social control and institutional violence as children and adolescents had to struggle with the consequences of these assaults for decades. The narrators of the storiesof survival are former sent-away-children who stayed in convalescent homes between 1950 and 1970; they document their experiences and their struggle for respect in their personal environment and for public recognition in the volume Heimweh –Verschickungskinder erzählen. The aim of the study. Based on a psychoanalytically inspired narrative concept, the article explores the question how the narrators are able to tell a story about their lives as their own and authentic life story. Research methods and techniques. This presupposes that not only experiences accessible to memory, but also repressed and pre-linguistic experiences have to be included in life story narration. Results and discussion. Pivotal categories of analysis are the terms “turning point” (Wendepunkte) and “threshold experience” (Schwellenerfahrungen). Four finished and completed narratives have been selected for analysis –two in which repressed experiences have found entry in the story telling, and two in which the struggle with remembering still is ongoing. Methodologically, I worked with a process of sense making (IPA) that reflects the subjectivity of all persons involved in the analysis, their previous experiences, their self-understandings and their theoretical assumptions, thereby disclosing their experiential space. Conclusions.An interesting finding of the analysis is that a) the level of violence experienced in the recovery homes cannot be considered as the only cause of repression and language disruption; b) children and adolescentswho had already developed resilience skills in their life history before their stay in the recovery homes were better able to resist the adversities in the recovery homes.Keywords: Sent-Away-Children; life story; repression and language destruction; remembering; resilience skills.