Down Alice's Rabbit Hole: Extreme Dissociation as a Matter of Life and Death: Commentary on Paper by Debra Rothschild

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Notes

I would like to thank George Atwood, Ph.D., for his help and input on this discussion.

¹“Love” is a controversial word in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. I used this word to mean seeing and hearing, cherishing and having a deep commitment to the other's growth, even at the therapist's personal sacrifice. In a lecture I once heard, Bruno Bettelheim quoted Freud as having said, “First be a gentleman, then be a psychoanalyst.” I will paraphrase that as, first be a truly “gentle, loving human being” to your patients, and then be a psychoanalyst and use psychoanalytic theory or technique. This I believe is especially applicable to trauma survivors, who may present us with very complicated situations necessitating “in-the-moment” decisions.