A Brief Treatment with a Posttraumatic Stress Disordered Patient—A Self Psychological Perspective

Abstract

Treatment of posttraumatic stress disordered patients has focused predominantly on symptom removal. The assumption is that once the symptoms of stress are alleviated, the individual can return to a previous level of functioning. This focus overlooks the psychological importance of the unique and permanent effects that traumatic stress can have on the way individuals experience themselves and the world. This brief paper contributes to an understanding of the importance of psychoanalytic treatment in helping a patient understand her longstanding need for preoccupation with thoughts of destruction and how this need prolonged her thinking about the 9/11 tragedy. As her understanding proceeded, the patient’s preoccupation with the suicide attacks diminished as did her negative preoccupations in general.