---
title: "Finding Light With Etty: Dr Barbara Morrill’s Journey Through Darkness and Hope"
description: Explore trauma, resilience and compassion as Dr Barbara Morrill draws wisdom from Etty Hillesum’s diaries to inspire healing across generations
author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2025-07-25T08:55:24.000Z
updated: 2026-03-04T18:47:04.174Z
canonical: https://richwoman.co/article/finding-light-with-etty-dr-barbara-morrill-s-journey-through-darkness-and-hope
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/barbaramorrill1_LE_upscale_old_photo-1.jpg
categories: Books
content_type: Profile
region: Netherlands
publication: Rich Woman Magazine
about:
  - type: Person
    name: Barbara Morrill, PhD
    description: "Barbara Morrill, PhD, is Faculty Emerita from the California Institute of Integral Studies and a licensed Clinical Psychologist with over 30 years in private practice. She holds degrees from Boston College and the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, specialising in social, psychological and spiritual development with emphasis on intergenerational trauma from racism and anti-semitism.\n\nDr. Morrill has spent over 25 years studying Dutch Holocaust victim Etty Hillesum, research that resulted in her 2024 Routledge book \"The Jungian Inspired Holocaust Writings of Etty Hillesum; To Write is to Act.\" She recently presented her findings on Liberation Day at the Etty Hillesum House in Netherlands and to The Dutch Jung Society. Learn more at barbaramorrill.com ."
    url: http://www.barbaramorrill.com
---

## The Jungian Inspired Holocaust Writings of Etty Hillesum: To Write is to Act

Within this[ fascinating new book](https://amzn.to/3UCICTy), Barbara Morrill analyses the journal writings of Etty Hillesum, a young Jewish woman in the 1940s, as she began analysis with a Jungian oriented practitioner in 1941.

### Book: The Jungian-Inspired Holocaust Writings of Etty Hillesum
By Barbara Morrill, PhD

Within this fascinating new book , Barbara Morrill analyses the journal writings of Etty Hillesum, a young Jewish woman in the 1940s, as she began analysis with a Jungian oriented practitioner in 1941.

This will be a unique volume of interest to Jungian analysts, analysts in training, as well as readers with an interest in the time period and concern about democracy and “our times.”

[Amazon](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1032756063?tag=mtnnetwork-21)

This will be a unique volume of interest to Jungian analysts, analysts in training, as well as [readers with an interest](https://richwoman.co/article/from-cybernetics-to-consciousness-how-dr-ruth-l-miller-turned-the-illness-that-changed-her-wo) in the time period and concern about democracy and “our times.”

The words leapt off the page of the diary like a personal letter written across eight decades. Dr Barbara Morrill stood in that Jewish bookstore, reading the raw, honest reflections of Etty Hillesum – [a young Dutch woman](https://richwoman.co/article/loneliness-and-borrowed-memory-eleanor-the-great-and-the-ethics-of-storytelling) who chose hope over hatred while watching Nazi terror consume her world. That moment would change not just Dr Barbara’s understanding of trauma and resilience, but her life’s work entirely.

What she found wasn’t another sanitised account of wartime suffering, but the unvarnished thoughts of a 27-year-old woman wrestling with depression, love affairs, family dysfunction and spiritual awakening whilst living through humanity’s darkest hour.

## The Seeds of Understanding

Dr Barbara’s path to that life-changing encounter had been decades in the making. Even as a child, she possessed what friends called an empathetic heart paired with relentless curiosity about human behaviour.

‘What piqued her curiosity most was what makes humans tick, why are some driven towards compassion while others towards a path of power over another,’ according to those who knew her early years.

This wasn’t idle childhood wondering. Dr Barbara had witnessed firsthand how trauma could ripple through generations, how fear could reshape families, how some people found ways to love whilst others chose control. These observations propelled her towards psychology, then into private practice for over thirty years, and eventually into teaching future therapists about the intricate connections between mind, body and spirit.

Her expertise in [intergenerational trauma from racism and antisemitism](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8802140/) wasn’t theoretical. She understood how historical wounds could live in bodies that never experienced the original violence, how inherited pain could shape choices across generations. Dr Barbara’s approach through Integral psychology recognised these interconnections long before trauma research caught up.

## When Past Meets Present

Etty Hillesum’s diary offered Dr Barbara something she hadn’t expected to find – a mirror. Here was a woman twice Anne Frank’s age, grappling with the same historical nightmare but through the lens of adult complexity.

Where Anne’s diary captured adolescent hope amid horror, [Etty’s writings revealed mature spiritual wrestling](https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/hillesum-etty) with questions Dr Barbara knew intimately.

‘In stunning passages between spiritual awakening and horror, Etty takes us on a profound journey sometimes mired in self-delusion that emerges through her work and characterised by intense inner struggles and spiritual challenges,’ Dr Barbara observed. This wasn’t the sanitised inspiration of motivational quotes, but something messier and more real.

Etty wrote candidly about her relationship with her analyst Julius Spier, her family’s chaos, her own bouts with depression – all whilst Nazi persecution intensified around her. Most remarkably, as Dr Barbara discovered, Etty ‘chose not to dwell in hate for the Nazis but to embrace this phase as an opportunity for growth rather, than succumbing to its burdens.’

This choice fascinated Dr Barbara. In her decades of practice, she’d seen how trauma could either destroy or heal. [Etty’s approach to turning trauma into wisdom](https://richwoman.co/article/the-power-of-healing-whispers-of-the-soul-s-ripple-effect) offered a historical template for healing that felt urgently relevant.

## Shadows in Today’s Light

The parallels Dr Barbara began noticing weren’t subtle. As she studied Etty’s experience of families hiding in Amsterdam apartments, she watched modern families disappearing into fear.

Immigration detention centres across America echoed with familiar terrors – [children separated from parents, communities torn apart by systematic persecution](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7348446/).

Dr Barbara’s work took on new urgency. ‘From the roundup of illegal migrants, brutal mass deportations, and ice raids unfolding before our very own horrified eyes, we are also seeing many immigrants documented and undocumented hiding out in fear,’ she observed. The cycle she’d studied in her research on generational trauma was playing out in real time.

Her trip to Amsterdam became a pilgrimage of understanding. Walking in Etty’s footsteps, meeting a Holocaust survivor, Dr Barbara felt the weight of history pressing against the present. [Etty had written from Westerbork transit camp about choosing service over self-preservation](https://richwoman.co/article/stepping-into-your-power-with-trauma-expert-sherrie-allsup), working with women and children whilst knowing her own fate was sealed.

### The Courage to Witness

What struck Dr Barbara most was Etty’s refusal to turn away from beauty even whilst surrounded by unprecedented cruelty. Even facing deportation to Auschwitz, Etty could write: ‘The sky is full of purple lupins that stand up so regally and peacefully, two little old women have sat down for a chat, the sun is shining on my face – and right before our eyes, mass murder. The whole thing is simply beyond comprehension.’

This wasn’t naive optimism or denial. It was something Dr Barbara recognised as profound psychological wisdom – the capacity to hold both horror and hope simultaneously. [Etty’s writings challenge readers to work on inner healing as a way to bring about external change](https://interruptingthesilence.com/2009/07/12/etty-hillesum-finding-beauty-meaning-and-optimism/), refusing to let circumstances dictate emotional reality.

## Writing as Resistance

Dr Barbara’s response to discovering Etty’s diaries wasn’t academic – it was personal. She began writing articles with titles like ‘The Jungian Inspired Holocaust Writings of Etty Hillesum’ and ‘Etty Hillesum as Chronicler of Love Transcending Hate in Her Times, for Our Time, for All Time.’

These weren’t scholarly exercises but acts of preservation. [Like other women who have found healing through writing](https://richwoman.co/article/finding-grace-in-grief-a-woman-writes-through-loss-faith-and-healing), Dr Barbara understood that sharing stories could break cycles of pain.

‘Dr Barbara knew sharing Etty’s diaries is a gift to us all,’ those close to her work observed. Her book ‘The Jungian Inspired Holocaust Writings of Etty Hillesum; To Write is To Act’ emerged from this conviction that Etty’s insights could guide contemporary resistance to authoritarianism.

The parallel wasn’t lost on Dr Barbara – both women used writing as their form of witness and resistance. Where Etty documented spiritual growth amid genocide, Dr Barbara documents the ongoing need for [trauma-informed therapy that addresses systemic oppression](https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/11/25/1137754258/heres-how-some-therapists-are-tackling-structural-racism-in-their-practice).

## Standing in Truth

Dr Barbara’s keynote speaking in Holland carried Etty’s message forward, urging audiences to ‘listen to our inner wisdom much like Etty did.’ The message feels particularly urgent now as [scholars draw parallels between current detention policies and early Nazi systematic persecution](https://www.milwaukeeindependent.com/explainers/weaponizing-identity-trumps-undocumented-registry-requirement-parallels-nazi-era-laws-jews/).

‘Today, more inspired than ever, Dr Barbara staunchly reminds us its absolutely important for people to understand what happens during authoritarian leadership and like Etty not to let ourselves succumb to darkness,’ her recent interview revealed.

This isn’t abstract political analysis but deeply personal understanding of how fear operates as a weapon against human connection.

Etty had written that there’s always ‘an Ivan the Terrible or a Hitler lurking,’ recognition that the capacity for systematic cruelty remains constant across history. Dr Barbara sees this reality in the current climate of mass deportations and detained families, understanding that Etty’s response – choosing compassion over hatred even whilst facing death – offers a template for contemporary resistance.

### The Enduring Light

Perhaps what draws Dr Barbara most deeply to Etty’s story is the refusal to surrender joy even whilst acknowledging horror. Etty described life as ‘magnificent’ from Westerbork, finding ways to ’embrace its raw beauty despite being under the ugliest of circumstances.’

This wasn’t performance or bravado but genuine spiritual practice.

Dr Barbara’s work with clients dealing with inherited trauma often returns to this principle – the possibility of healing without denying pain, hope without minimising horror. [Recent research on intergenerational Holocaust trauma](https://richwoman.co/article/sharon-rosenbloom-a-single-mother-s-triumph-over-grief-and-mental-health-struggles) confirms what both women understood intuitively: healing requires holding multiple truths simultaneously.

In her therapeutic practice, Dr Barbara sees daily evidence of Etty’s insight that individual growth ripples outward into collective healing. Clients who address their inherited trauma don’t just heal themselves – they break cycles of pain that might otherwise continue for generations.

The lupins Etty noticed are still blooming somewhere, Dr Barbara knows, even as mass deportations continue, even as families hide in fear. The sun still shines on faces whilst cruelty unfolds nearby.

Both women chose to notice the light not as escape from darkness but as evidence that beauty persists even when evil seems triumphant.

Etty’s final insight echoes through Dr Barbara’s work today: the sky remains vast enough to hold all of human experience, terrible and transcendent alike. The choice each person faces – whether to succumb to fear or stand in truth – remains as urgent now as it was eight decades ago in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam.

**About Barbara Morrill, PhD**

Barbara Morrill, PhD, is Faculty Emerita from the California Institute of Integral Studies and a licensed Clinical Psychologist with over 30 years in private practice. She holds degrees from Boston College and the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, specialising in social, psychological and spiritual development with emphasis on intergenerational trauma from racism and anti-semitism.

Dr. Morrill has spent over 25 years studying Dutch Holocaust victim Etty Hillesum, research that resulted in her 2024 Routledge book "The Jungian Inspired Holocaust Writings of Etty Hillesum; To Write is to Act." She recently presented her findings on Liberation Day at the Etty Hillesum House in Netherlands and to The Dutch Jung Society. Learn more at barbaramorrill.com .

[Website](http://www.barbaramorrill.com)
