Individual presentation:
• Inna Rozentsvit:
War, Wombs, and Will: Women at the Crossroads of Violence and Continuity — A Functional Psychoneurobiological–Historical Perspective
(60 min)

Abstract:

“War, wombs, and will” are used here not as rhetorical devices but as analytic anchors: war as the activation of survival neurobiology under threat; wombs as the biological and symbolic capacity for generational continuity, caregiving, and transmission; and will as agency — decision-making, leadership, and the capacity for decisive action within extreme conditions.

This presentation examines women’s roles in war and peace through a Functional Psychoneurobiological and psychohistorical framework, integrating the Triune Brain model (Paul MacLean) with concepts of regulation and co-regulation. War conditions are understood as states of heightened activation of lower, survival-driven brain systems, requiring continuous negotiation with higher-order regulatory and integrative functions.

Within this framework, sex-linked neurobiological differences in the processing of threat, stress, and relational information are treated as biologically grounded, while their expression is shaped by development and socio-cultural context. Across history, women have occupied a dual and often paradoxical position: as primary targets of violence aimed at disrupting social and generational continuity — including sexualized violence in conflicts such as the October 7 attacks — and as agents of preservation, co-regulation, and resistance.

Examples from World War I and World War II — including caregiving, medical, industrial, intelligence, resistance, and, in some cases, direct combat roles — alongside figures such as Joan of Arc and contemporary movements like the Woman, Life, Freedom movement following the death of Mahsa Jina Amini, illustrate how women navigate both survival demands and the preservation of relational and societal structures.

The presentation proposes that women frequently operate across two simultaneous planes: engagement with threat and maintenance of continuity. This dual capacity — to endure, regulate, preserve, and, when necessary, act decisively — reflects an adaptive integration of neurobiological systems within specific historical conditions, rather than a contradiction between vulnerability and strength.

Keywords: attachment, co-regulation, functional psychoneurobiology, gender differences, psychohistory, trauma and resilience, triune brain, war and conflict, women’s agency

Short Bio:

Inna Rozentsvit, M.D., PhD, is a physician and neurorehabilitation specialist, neuropsychoanalytic educator, and psychohistorian. She integrates neuroscience, psychoanalysis, and history to study trauma, resilience, moral development, and transgenerational transmission. Her teaching and writing translate neurobiological principles of self-regulation and neuroplasticity into clinically and culturally practical frameworks, including Functional PsychoNeuroBiology®. She can be reached at www.innarozentsvit.com or by email, .