Being Acted Upon by a Traumatic Event: A Phenomenological Description of Altered Temporality

ABSTRACT

This paper addresses the transformation of subjectivity in trauma by considering recent psychopathological research, especially in relation to the works of Judith Herman and Bessel van der Kolk. It particularly focus on the omnipresent character of trauma in distinguishing two forms of dissociation, a primary and a secondary one. The analysis of this omnipresent character sheds light on the crucial therapeutic question concerning the integration of a traumatic event into the symbolic order.

KEYWORDS:

• Trauma
• Time-Consciousness
• Dissociation
• Agency

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Levinas, Autrement qu’être.

2 Bernet, Traumatisierte Subjekt; Derrida, Autoimmunity; Richir, Phénomène et infini; Waldenfels, Bruchlinien.

3 Herman, Trauma.

4 Van der Kolk, Body.

5 Lebigot, Traumatismes.

6 Roisi, Survivance.

7 Rudolf, Psychotherapie.

8 Ginzburg, Medals, 395.

9 Mead, Mind.

10 Laplanche, Révolution.

11 Levinas, Totalité.

12 Several other paradigms could be mentioned in this regard. From Hannah Arendt’s “vita activa” to the process of subjectivation in the late work of Foucault. I have mentioned Mead, Laplanche and Levinas because the diacronic aspect (in Levinas’s sense) is particularly prominent.

13 Bernhard Waldenfels’s responsive phenomenology has relentlessly endeavored to show the complex connection between facticity and initiative in terms of a delayed relation between pathos and response: Waldenfels, Bruchlinien.

14 Blumenberg, Mythos.

15 See Domínguez-Rodrigo, Savanna Hypothesis.

16 Ellenberger, Discovery.

17 Oulahbib, Janet.

18 Van der Kolk, Body, 135.

19 Van der Kolk, Body, 70.

20 Goldstein, Organism, 49.

21 Herman, Trauma.

22 Herman, Trauma.

23 Micali, Anxiety, Ch. 2 §4.

24 Freud, Psychical Mechanism, 30–1.

25 Ibid.

26 “L’idée fixe leur apparaît comme un corps étranger logé en eux qu’ils ne peuvent expulser, mais elle ne parvient pas à les envahir tout entiers.” Ribot quotes Westphal’s sentence in his book Psychologie de l’attention (p. 135). Janet mentions Westphal’s passage in his work L’automatisme psychologique with reference to Ribot’s work.

27 Freud, Vol. XX, 166.

28 Micali, Anxiety, Ch. 2 §5.

29 Derrida, Autoimmunity, 96–7.

30 Micali, Anxiety, Ch. 2 §6.

31 Even a complex trauma tends to condense itself into a singular trauma.

32 “Ici règne le sans-distance. Tous les événements intermédiaires [between the past and the present] sont abolis. Entre ce passé et ce présent il n’y a rien. Le temps est vide. Le présent de la malade se trouve sous le surplomb d’un passé transcendant. Celui-ci n’est pas un passé historique. Il est un passé absolu au sens (ici déficient) de Schelling. Étranger au temps dont le présent est le foyer, il n’est pas le passé de ce présent ni de cette historie. Passé extra-temporel il menace d’engloutir l’ultime historicité de ce présent.” (Maldiney, 1991, 114).

33 Jaffe, Dissociative Phenomena, 311.

34 Van der Kolk, Body, 69.

35 Armeni, Soldier, 11.

36 Micali, Anxiety, Ch. 5 § 4–5.

37 Kardiner/Spiegel, War, 128.

38 Freud, Vol. XII, 150.

39 Van der Kolk, Body, 147.

40 Herman, Trauma, 43.

41 Partnoy, School, 68.

42 Partnoy, School, 71–2.

43 Herman, Trauma, 155.

44 Herman, Trauma, 197.

45 Janet, 1894, Histoire, 132 (my translation).

46 Ibid.

47 Janet’s intervention operates at two levels: on the one hand, it focuses on the “local” disturbance of the fixed idea; on the other hand, it addresses the general state of mind (see also Janet for fixed ideas). Anyone who knows Justine’s case is aware of the variety of the factors involved in her condition. Among them, Janet mentions hereditary factors, the probable diseases affecting the brain area such as meningitis and episodes of emotional shock that have occurred in early childhood. In the enlightening pages at the end of his essay, Janet explains the reasons why Justine cannot in his view come to a full recovery.

48 Herman, Trauma, Chapters 7–9.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by KU Leuven Internal Funds C1: [Grant Number 3H180446]; FWO (Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek) (3H200042): [Grant Number 3H200042].