Trauma as a monstrous quasi-object

ABSTRACT

It is characteristic of a trauma that the subject cannot process and symbolically represent the traumatic experience. With Lacan's theory of ‘the real', the traumatic experience is understood as one of being overwhelmed by a monstrous quasi-object. In developmental terms, I refer to a traumatic core (birth) and the subject's traumatic susceptibility. It manifests itself during childhood in transitions from one ontological constitution to another that are necessitated by internal or external changes. Such transitions involve the child's particular reliance on his primary objects, and they require specific appropriate reactions from them. This also applies to the child’s general dependence, as his primary objects must react appropriately to his constitution as a child, so that he can feel existentially affirmed by them in his being. The adult, also, is reliant on knowing that he is affirmed as a human being in his existence, which can be experienced in the affirmative gaze of the other. Metaphorically speaking, this also applies to the gaze and behaviour of the natural and technological environment, which can transform, like a personal object, into a traumatic monstrous quasi-object. The paper concludes with a clinical vignette in which the emergence and transformation of a monstrous quasi-object is illustrated in the treatment of a female patient suffering from severe early traumata.

Il est caractéristique d'un traumatisme que le sujet ne peut ni traiter ni représenter symboliquement l'expérience traumatisante. Avec la théorie de Lacan du « réel », l'expérience traumatisante est comprise comme celle d'être submergé par un quasi-objet monstrueux. En termes de développement, l'auteur se réfère à un noyau traumatique (la naissance) et à une susceptibilité traumatique du sujet, se manifestant pendant l'enfance aux moments de transitions d'une constitution ontologique à une autre, rendues nécessaires par des changements internes ou externes. Ces transitions impliquent la dépendance particulière de l'enfant à ses objets primaires, et elles exigent de leur part des réponses spécifiquement adaptées. Ceci s'applique également à la dépendance générale de l'enfant, car ses principaux objets doivent répondre de manière adaptée à sa constitution d'enfant, afin qu'il puisse se sentir existentiellement affirmé par eux. L'adulte, lui aussi, dépend du savoir qu'il est existentiellement reçu comme être humain, ce qui peut être vécu dans le regard affirmatif de l'autre. Métaphoriquement, cela s'applique aussi au regard et au comportement de l'environnement naturel et technologique, qui peut se transformer, comme l'objet personnel, en quasi-objet monstrueux et traumatisant. L'auteur termine par une vignette clinique dans laquelle l'émergence et la transformation d'un quasi-objet monstrueux est illustrée à travers la cure d'une patiente souffrant d'un traumatisme précoce sévère.

Merkmal eines Traumas ist, dass das Subjekt die traumatische Erfahrung nicht verarbeiten und symbolisch repräsentieren kann. Mit Lacans Konzeption des “Realen” (le reél) wird die traumatische Erfahrung als Überwältigung durch ein monströses Quasiobjekt verstanden. Entwicklungsbezogen spreche ich von einem traumatischen Kern (Geburt) und der traumatischen Anfälligkeit des Subjekts. Sie zeigt sich in der Kindheit an Übergängen von einer Seinsverfassung in eine andere, die durch innere oder äußere Veränderungen notwendig werden. Solche Übergänge beinhalten ein spezifisches Angewiesensein des Kindes auf seine Primärobjekte und fordern von deren Seite spezifisch angemessene Reaktionen. Das gilt auch für die allgemeine Abhängigkeit des Kindes, dessen primäre Objekte auf seine Verfassung als Kind angemessen reagieren müssen, sodass es sich in seinem Sein durch sie existenziell bejaht fühlen kann. Auch der Erwachsene ist darauf angewiesen, sich als Mensch in seiner Existenz bejaht zu wissen, was in dem bejahenden Blick des Anderen erfahrbar wird. Metaphorisch gesprochen gilt das auch für den Blick und das Verhalten der natürlichen und technologischen Umwelt, die sich wie ein personales Objekt in ein traumatisches monströses Quasiobjekt verwandeln kann. Den Abschluss der Arbeit bildet eine klinische Vignette, in der das Auftauchen eines monströsen Quasiobjekts und dessen Transformation in der Behandlung einer schwer frühtraumatisierten Patientin dargestellt wird.

Tra gli aspetti caratteristici del trauma è il fatto che il soggetto non riesce a elaborare e a rappresentare simbolicamente l'esperienza traumatica. Nella teoria lacaniana del ‘Reale', il trauma è concettualizzato come esperienza di essere sopraffatti da un quasi-oggetto mostruoso. In termini di sviluppo, l'Autore si riferisce a un nucleo traumatico (la nascita) e alla suscettibilità traumatica del soggetto. Si manifesta durante l'infanzia in quei momenti di transizione da una costituzione ontologica ad un'altra - transizioni che si rendono necessarie a seguito di cambiamenti interni o esterni e che inoltre chiamano in causa il particolare affidamento che il bambino fa sui suoi oggetti primari, richiedendo da parte di questi ultimi delle specifiche reazioni appropriate. Lo stesso vale anche per la generale dipendenza del bambino, nella misura in cui i suoi oggetti primari devono reagire in modo appropriato al suo costituirsi come bambino perché egli possa sentire di ricevere da loro una convalida a livello esistenziale. Invero, anche l'adulto ha bisogno di sapere affermata la sua esistenza come essere umano, ed è questa un'esperienza che può venir fatta attraverso lo sguardo convalidante dell'altro. In senso metaforico, lo stesso vale per lo sguardo e il comportamento dell'ambiente naturale e tecnologico, che al pari di un oggetto personale può trasformarsi in un traumatico e mostruoso quasi-oggetto. L’articolo si conclude con una vignetta clinica in cui, nel contesto del trattamento di una paziente che aveva subito dei gravi traumi precoci, si illustrano prima il manifestarsi e poi la trasformazione di un quasi-oggetto mostruoso.

Caracteriza al trauma que el sujeto no pueda procesar ni representar simbólicamente la experiencia traumática. Con la teoría de “lo real” de Lacan, se entiende la experiencia traumática como aquella en la que se es abrumado por un cuasi-objeto monstruoso. En términos de desarrollo, el autor se refiere a un núcleo traumático (nacimiento) y a la susceptibilidad traumática del sujeto. Se manifiesta durante la niñez en las transiciones de una constitución ontológica a otra, exigidas para los cambios internos y externos. Estas transiciones involucran la dependencia particular del niño en sus objetos primarios, y requieren reacciones apropiadas específicas por parte de ellos. Esto también se aplica a la dependencia general del niño, ya que sus objetos primarios deben reaccionar de forma apropiada a su constitución como niño para que pueda sentirse existencialmente afirmado por ellos en su ser. El adulto, también, depende de saber que es afirmado como ser humano en su existencia, que puede ser experimentado en la mirada afirmativa del otro. Hablando metafóricamente, esto también se aplica a la mirada y al comportamiento del entorno natural y tecnológico, que puede transformarse, como un objeto personal, en un cuasi-objeto monstruoso y traumático. El artículo termina con una viñeta clínica de una paciente que sufre un trauma temprano severo que ilustra la emergencia y la transformación de un cuasi-objeto monstruoso.

Notes

1 Physicalist means that Freud does not describe the event in psychological terms, but in the language of physics, characterised by quantitative and energetic (physical energy) terms. It is close to how Laplanche & Pontalis use the term "economic" in the case of trauma with regard to excessive external stimuli.

2 At first sight the preceding confrontation of trauma to the symbolic order excludes infants from my perspective on trauma. The decisive point, however, is that the traumatic event cannot be integrated in the subject's existent psychic processing templates, however rudimentary pre- or protosymbolic they are. Thus, with respect to traumatic events the symbolic and the pre- or protosymbolic mode of being are not categorically different from each other, so that infants, too, can be seen in the perspective unfolded above. For the sake of clarity I shall continue reflecting on the symbolic mode in the following.

3 The distinction between the active and the passive mode corresponds to the transitive and intransitive meaning of the German word '(zer)reißen', translated 'to tear'.

4 Lovecraft (1890–1937), a writer in the tradition of Poe, in his 'weird fiction' tried to evoke Experiences of a monstrously overwhelming character by allusively depicting creatures (like 'Cthulu', e.g.) from beyond our symbolic universe that cannot truly be grasped and tamed by imagination and words. He characterised weird fiction by a "certain atmosphere of breathless and unexplainable dread of outer unknown forces", aiming at "that most terrible conception of the human brain – a malign and particular suspension or defeat of those fixed laws of Nature which are our only safeguards against the assaults of chaos and the demons of unplumbed space".

5 Sodré (2019) delineates a split-off 'schizoid Object' as a result of a very early trauma of separations of the patient from her mother. Finding herself in the presence of the schizoid Object in the transference, the patient Experienced a threat to existential survival, due to paranoid-schizoid anxieties. I suppose that the schizoid Object in this treatment might be an example of an internal(ized) monstrous quasi-object with regard to the early trauma of separations.

6 'Zerreißen / to tear' in its transitive use, see fn 2.

7 'Zerreißen / the tearing asunder' in its intransitive use, see fn 2. – For a discussion of 'absence' and for clinical examples see Gurevich (2008).

8 This is in accordance with Winnicott's (1989, 145) developmental conception of trauma: "The idea of trauma involves a consideration of external factors; in other words it belongs to dependence. Trauma is a failure relative to dependence".

9 I believe a specifically appropriate response often corresponds to what in the analytic literature is called ‘minute’ or ‘benign’ trauma (Winnicott 1989), 'micro' trauma (Kohut 1971), or ‘minor’ trauma (Steiner 2018). Confronting diminutive notions like these with the meaning of trauma itself, I wonder if they are truly helpful, rather addressing something like ‘wooden iron’.

10 A patient of mine was an unwelcome child in the above sense. After some years in analysis he told me that he could not send a photo of him to a woman with whom he wanted to get in touch via a partnership portal in the internet. Eventually it became clear that psychically he equated the photo of himself with himself as a person (baby). If the woman received the photo and did not send him an answer, he would feel annihilated. He compared this to his early life, when his mother had rejected him and did not look at his eyes.

11 Writing 'Other' with capital O, I do not want to allude to Lacan's symbolic order. Rather, I refer to the subject's 'not me' in a general sense, also including non-personal objects.

12 In literature examples can be found in Lovecraft's 'weird fiction' (cf. fn 3). – The implicit question of individual differences, or 'resilience', with regard to traumatic events is out of the scope of this paper.

13 I wrote several papers on Ms A., e.g., one about the transition from an autistoid organisation at the beginning of the treatment to the Oedipal position (Schneider 2009). Another one is about the turning points in the treatment (2012).

14 My practice is in my flat.