Trauma and Memory

Abstract

A theory of traumatic memory was developed by Breuer and Freud in “Studies on Hysteria” based on Charcot’s theory on the traumatic origin of mental disorders. This was again developed in DSM-III in 1980 with the introduction of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), where traumatic memory was conceptualized as a core of the syndrome and set in causal relationship with its manifestations. This implied that “trauma” tended to be seen as something static and reified, like a “thing” in the mind. It is shown that this conceptualisation diverts attention from the dynamic and reorganizing processes in the traumatized person’s mind, body and relations to others. The psychoanalytic conceptualization includes a wider spectre of the manifestations in posttraumatic conditions and it differs in the understanding of underlying processes. What is common for both childhood and adult trauma and their posttraumatic manifestations are deficiencies in symbolization processes related to the traumatic experiences. The signal anxiety function fails and the ego is overwhelmed by automatic or annihilation anxiety. The ability to distinguish between real danger and neutral stimuli which function as triggers fails. As anxiety related to trauma cannot be mentalized, fragments of the self are split off and evacuated. These experiences remain as fragmented bits and pieces that can express themselves in bodily pain, dissociated states of mind, nightmares and relational disturbances. Thus, the consequences of psychological trauma may be conceptualised as processes characterised by splitting off of not mentalized inner objects/introjects and parts of the mental apparatus. These processes are illustrated with a short clinical vignette.