Addressing the Treatment of Trauma: Psychoanalytic Contributions to Clinical Practice

This session is available for 6.00 APA and ASWB credits.

When Freud repudiated hypnosis and the study of dissociation in 1895 and withdrew his seduction or trauma theory in 1897, these subjects were eclipsed, destined (with few exceptions) to remain marginalized within psychoanalysis until the last quarter of the twentieth century. Then, a small group of analysts began to build bridges between psychoanalysis, hypnosis, trauma, and the dissociative disorders. Other colleagues began to bridge Interpersonal psychoanalysis with the emerging Relational perspective. Meanwhile, neo-Kleinian colleagues, mostly in the UK, developed new approaches, examining dissociation within and expanding from that paradigm and reactivating the ideas of earlier pioneers. This workshop will present perspectives on how these trends within psychoanalysis can move us toward creative cross-fertilization in our clinical practice. Following Bromberg and Kluft’s examination of models of dissociation (Kluft, 2022; in press), which concluded that no single model embraces the full range of dissociative psychopathology, this discourse will emphasize how to make use of classic and emerging psychoanalytic ideas not as rigid paradigms, but as flexible “useful servants,” toward promoting the more thorough understanding and best therapeutic interests of each individual patient. Our discussions will consider the Kleinian and post-Kleinian study of fragmented mental states originating in the infantile mind and reactivated by trauma; how therapist and patient co-construct a relational field within which multiple selves are encountered and addressed; how the analyst approaches the interaction of the internal and external worlds; how hypnotic phenomena can be approached and integrated into our understanding and treatment strategies; and how the analyst can approach the patient’s voyage through the world of external reality where, as Leston Havens observed, “People, in short, drive each other mad.”