"Vamik’s Room", a documentary on Vamik Volkan's life

Vamik’s Room is a documentary film produced to demonstrate the life of Vamik Volkan, a psychoanalyst who was born in Cyprus and has contributed a lifetime around the globe in order to bring representatives from warring factions together for dialogue. 

The film produced and directed by Molly Castelloe, an actress and writer, dramatizes Vamik’s main ideas about group psychology, tracking how he has helped heal conflict in traumatized regions including the Middle East, Estonia and the Republic of Georgia. 

The documentary displays the importance of adaptive mourning and how malignant leaders can mobilize shared memories of a past injury to catalyze a “time collapse” in the present that fuels genocidal acts of revenge. 

The name "Vamik's Room" was established when Vamik’s work with a refugee family forced from their home in Abkhazia and how he helped the grief-stricken community find hope in their new surroundings, a dilapidated luxury hotel.

He returns years later where the people have built a room for him, called “Vamik’s room.”

Vamik's diplomatic work in conjunction with the International Dialogue Initiative creates a reflective space for groups to communicate free from the distortions of historical trauma.

The screening of the documentary will take place on September 9th between 2 - 4 pm at Freud Museum London.  

Üsküdar News Agency (ÜNA)