The self in pain: the paradox of memory. The paradox of testimony.
Using the 7-year psychotherapy of a Holocaust survivor, this paper explores the sometimes contradictory aspects of approaches to trauma. Conceptualizing a "self in pain" as an alternative to contemporary conceptualizations of the traumatized person as having a damaged, dissociated or collapsed self leads to a corresponding alternative clinical approach. The paradoxes of traumatic memory and testimony necessitate an adaptational emphasis and the emergence of a "doubled" in contrast to a dissociated self. The decision to respect this "doubled" self involves a privileging of "reality" over "psychic reality" which then, paradoxically enables this patient to develop a phantasy life.
Prince
Robert
R
New York University, Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, New York City, NY, USA. RobertPrincePhD@gmail.com
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D017767:Holocaust / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000523:psychology*; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*; D047789:World War II