title: Self-psychological approach to posttraumatic stress disorder: neurobiological aspects of transmuting internalization.
abstract: This essay presents the case of a young man with severe posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in order to demonstrate how a self-psychological orientation and psychotherapeutic approach enables acute symptoms to be relieved, while concomitantly addressing vulnerability in character structure. The self-psychological conceptualization of the psychodynamics of PTSD is discussed, along with a recently proposed neuropsychological theory of PTSD. After viewing the pertinent neurobiological research, an integration of the self-psychological concepts of transmuting internalization (a purported curative factor in psychotherapy) with neurobiological data and behavioral observations is presented.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Monteflore Medical Center.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Deitz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001037:Aphasia / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D001143:Arousal; D004532:Ego; D006117:Grief; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D009769:Object Attachment; D010553:Personality Development; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy; D012803:Sick Role; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D014167:Transference, Psychology