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Towards a Unified Theory of Trauma and its Consequences
Author(s) -
Lewis Jonathan D.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
international journal of applied psychoanalytic studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.314
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 1556-9187
pISSN - 1742-3341
DOI - 10.1002/aps.1305
Subject(s) - contradiction , psychological trauma , psychoanalysis , psychology , severe trauma , psychotherapist , medicine , epistemology , philosophy , surgery
ABSTRACT Psychoanalysis was founded on the idea that childhood trauma was repressed and that symptoms arose as the result of the return of the repressed memories in disguised form. Current experience with symptoms following catastrophic trauma in adults finds that these symptoms result from the inability to repress memories of the trauma. Part I of the article investigates the differences in these two formulations and their apparent contradiction. Part II discusses theoretic views and clinical material that point to the possibility of underlying theoretical similarities in Freud's understanding of the consequences of trauma and the consequences of massive trauma in adult life. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.