The Reality of Trauma; the Trauma of Reality

ABSTRACT

This study is particularly relevant because of COVID, and the traumatic experience we are living through together in the present. This article is, however, not, or not only, about the time of COVID: through current events we examine the psychological effects of mass trauma on the individual, the complex relationship of the me (the subject) and the we (the group, the Intersubjective), and the genesis of reality. We focus on how the outer events in the here-and-now become an internal, subjective reality, and what role is played by the group, the intersubjective community, in the genesis of reality. Between the outer reality and the individual’s internal, psychic reality we distinguish a third reality: we reality. In our interpretation, we reality is an intersubjective construct, the result of a process of symbolization: a dream in the field created through the interaction of individuals interacting in the here-and-now.

This article is referred to by:

Discussion of Bakó, T. & Zana, K. “The Reality of Trauma; the Trauma of Reality”

The Centre Cannot Hold: Comments on “The Reality of Trauma; The Trauma of Reality” by Bakó & Zana

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

¹ An earlier draft of this paper was presented at the XXVII Conference of the Hungarian Psychoanalytic Society (8–9 October 2021, Budapest) and published in Lélekelemzés, Journal of the Hungarian Psychoanalytic Society (Bakó & Zana, 2022).

² The following articles may help the reader to better understand the Hungarian social context.

https://cdn.americanprogress.org/content/uploads/2020/12/17120823/COVID19-in-Hungary.pdf

https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/npf-2020–0060/html

https://verfassungsblog.de/hungary-and-the-pandemic-a-pretext-for-expanding-power/

https://www.fairtrials.org/news/impact-covid-19-rule-law-hungary-and-poland

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tihamér Bakó

Tihamér Bakó (Hab., PhD.) psychologist, psychotherapist, training psychoanalyst of the Hungarian Psychoanalytical Society, training therapist for the Hungarian Psychodrama Association. He works in private practice in Budapest. He is the author of many textbooks and articles dealing with trauma, collective trauma, transgenerational trauma, crisis, and suicide.

Katalin Zana

Katalin Zana (MD., PhD.) is a doctor, psychotherapist, psychoanalyst, and a member of the Hungarian Psychoanalytical Society. She is the author of many books and articles on trauma, collective trauma, transgenerational trauma, and creativity. She has a private practice in Budapest.