The Special Problem of Interpretation in the Treatment of Traumatized Patients

Abstract

Trauma is not an unambiguously defined concept. After a discussion of various definitions and different types of trauma, a description is given of short- and long-term outcomes of traumatic experiences. For the treatment of traumatized individuals, and above all, for the interpretation of this kind of experience it is important to note that traumatic memories are subject to some specific psychic transformations. The traumatized self-states are not completely dissociated from the mind’s associative network. Specific interpretive strategies are described that focus on the irreparable break in basic trust, the need to control relationships, the importance of the reconstruction of the trauma, the restoring of the paralyzed agency of the traumatized self, and the particular attention that must be paid to enactments in the treatment. In the final part, a new understanding of memory in so-called Embodied Cognitive Science is described. Memory is no longer a retrieval of stored knowledge in the brain, but a function of the entire organism, the product of complex, dynamic recategorization and invariably embodied interactive processes. By way of a clinical example, the manner is illustrated in which this new conception provides an alternative explanation as to how traumatic memories function, and how the latter are understood in psychoanalytic treatment.

Notes

¹ This case history is described in more detail in Bohleber (2010).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Werner Bohleber

Werner Bohleber, Dr. phil.; Training and Supervising Analyst, former President of the German Psychoanalytical Association (DPV); Chair of the IPA Committee on Conceptual Integration (2009–2013); Editor of the German psychoanalytic journal Psyche. He is in private psychoanalytic practice in Frankfurt, Germany.

Marianne Leuzinger-Bohleber

Marianne Leuzinger-Bohleber, Prof. Dr. phil.; Director, The Sigmund Freud Institute, Frankfurt, Germany; Training Analyst, German Psychoanalytic Association; Professor of Psychoanalysis, University of Kassel; Co-Chair for Europe, Research Board, IPA.