Death was knocking on the door

Abstract

Increasing violence and destruction in the world bring up new questions about theory and technique in the field of psychoanalysis. The purpose of this article is to discuss the importance of the meta-containing function of supervision groups while working with trauma victims. In order to illustrate this, examples will be given from a voluntary supervision group process which was established after a series of terrorist attacks in Turkey. Traumatic events, expressed in the outside world and witnessed during the sessions, may hinder the containing function of the therapist which may make it impossible to "think under fire" while "death is knocking on the door". By working through the conflicting feelings of the trauma victim, brought to the supervision group process through the mechanism of projective identification, a deeper understanding of the patient is achieved and the "blindspots" of the therapist are discovered. As the therapist-trauma victim dyad moves from "acting" to acquiring higher levels of symbolization, therapeutic process deepens, work of mourning is activated, and in some cases symptoms are eliminated and better adaptation to the outside world is observed.