There were shootings, deaths, fear, hostage-taking and the “luck” for some to survive this tragic night. On November 13, 2015, Paris was attacked in its streets and at the Bataclan in what will be the deadliest attack in its history. If everyone remembers, hundreds of people were personally hurt by the events. Ten years later, how have the relatives of the 130 victims and the 413 injured been able to move forward? This Monday, a special “memory” evening of the attacks – and the survivors – is organized on France 2. Between memory, resilience and invisible scars, a journey to the heart of human reconstruction.
Brain and memory side: a plasticity that gives hope
To find out, for 10 years, a research program called the November 13 program has been taking stock of the memory of the victims. Born after the attacks, this interdisciplinary project led by Inserm and the CNRS explores over the long term the way in which individual and collective memories of a major trauma are constructed and evolve.
The system is based on two main components:
- Study 1000which has been collecting filmed testimonies from volunteers since 2016 according to their proximity to the attacks. More than 2,700 interviews have already been carried out, representing 4,500 hours of recorded speech, with four interview waves planned: 2016, 2018, 2021 and 2026;
- The Remember studya biomedical component conducted with 200 participants, which focuses on the brain mechanisms of post-traumatic stress (PTSD) and resilience, using imaging and neuropsychology.
Contacted by True Medical, the neuropsychologist Francis Eustache, scientific coordinator of the program, summarizes: “It is in a way the memory of November 13 that we are recording, with its evolution over time. We want to understand how distance, geographical and temporal, influences the way in which a trauma is registered and transformed in memory.”
Results from the first waves of the study revealed major differences between people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and those who had developed a form of brain resilience. In 2016, among the participants in the first circle (the most exposed), half presented PTSD. In 2018, researchers identified a group called “remitters” : 19 people who, initially traumatized, no longer met the criteria for PTSD two years later.
“We have observed, thanks to imaging, very strong plasticity mechanisms, capable of compensating for mental intrusions and restoring a certain emotional balance”explains Francis Eustache. “It’s a message of hope: the brain can reorganize itself, even after an extreme shock.”
In 2026, the fourth and final phase of the program will complete this unique portrait of French traumatic memory.
Psychological side: a trauma that moves, but which can be transformed
But how to (re)live with this heavy baggage from the past? For psychologist Amélie Boukhobza, specialist in trauma and resilience, “a shock of this magnitude does not fade away, but it can be transformed“.
Ten years after the attacks, the reconstruction work has nothing to do with a return to normal. “Are we going back to the way we were before? No. There is a before, an after, and a long period of work in between.”
Some victims have been able to bring movement back into their lives, others still live with reminiscences of the tragedy: diffuse fear, hypervigilance, nightmares, flashes or avoidance. Typical symptoms of post-traumatic stress. “Time doesn’t erase, but it sometimes makes the weight more livable“, she continues.
Trauma, according to her, evolves and moves: it can be lodged in the body, dreams, relationships. But it can also become a strength: “Some people gain knowledge of their fragility, an acute awareness of what really matters. Resilience is the ability to move forward, differently, never unscathed, but alive.”
The psychologist emphasizes that this resilience depends on a set of factors: the support received, the opportunity to speak, the meaning we give to the event. Two people exposed to the same tragedy never react in the same way.
Therapies like EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) can help “neutralize the emotions associated with the memory without erasing them“, she explains.
“We don’t leave the trauma behind, it remains an imprint. But we can stop being a prisoner of it” assures the expert.
Ten years later: between memory and presence in the world
Ten years after November 13, 2015, the work of memory continues, both in the laboratories and in the lives of those who survived. Between science and psychology, a conviction emerges: memory is not fixed, it transforms, like the people it inhabits.
“We are not going back to life before” concludes Amélie Boukhobza. “But we can, through words, time and connection, become alive again. Differently, but alive.”