The Traumatized Patient’s Word and Temperament as Elements of Successful Psychotherapeutic Treatment

Abstract

I will review the case presentation by Ron Bodansky of two treatments of a primitively organized patient who endured childhood trauma. Drawing on the material, as well as work by Fairbairn and Verhaeghe, I offer two proposals to help explain why some deeply traumatized patients improve in psychotherapy. First, inborn temperament may be more important than the nature of the trauma or the specifics of the treatment itself. Second, the mitigating effect of the treatment may be found in the nature of the relationship between the therapist and patient. By abandoning assumptions regarding the patient’s prognosis, and by providing sustained attention to, and committed interest in, the patient’s stated experiences, all within a specifically therapeutic boundary, patients may develop the language and representation capacities needed to live beyond trauma, and thus be taken at their word.

Notes

1. ¹Verhaeghe is a professor of psychoanalysis and the chair of the department of psychoanalysis at the University of Ghent, Belgium.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Barnet D. Malin

Dr. Malin is Training and Supervising Analyst, Psychoanalytic Center of California and New Center for Psychoanalysis; Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry UCLA; and in private practice in Santa Monica, California.