Social trauma: The pathogenic effects of untoward social conditions

Abstract

Psychoanalysis has traditionally overlooked the fact that unsuitable and damaging life conditions, originating in the social milieu, play a part in the pathogenesis of emotional suffering and mental disorders. Nonetheless, the self establishes an object relation with the social system, as well as with the non-human environment. This is expected to act as a container–contained relationship. Whenever the community and its institutions fail to act as a container for individuals and groups, this generates a trauma, which can be compared with the baby's experience of a failure in mothering. Such failures can be classified in several categories. The first is when the social system fails to contain, nurture, care for, and protect individuals, as in the case of the lack of assistance and compassion towards the victims of poverty, disease, natural catastrophe, social turmoil, economic crisis, violence, or war. The second category occurs when there is a blatant attack, on the part of the authorities or privileged social groups, on minorities, or even on the bulk of the population, as in the case of social repression, war—both internal and external—racism, genocide, or persecution. The third is when there is a perversion of the social system, which feigns to uphold current social values and laws while actually breaking them, as in the case of corruption, chicanery, and mendacity on the part of the authorities. One recent example of this is the impeachment process against the Chief of Government of Mexico City. The author approaches this problem by exploring the consequences of such experiences for the development and functioning of personality structure and personal relations, as well as their repercussions for individuals living together in the community and for the necessary relation between them and the authorities.     

A controversy between Freud and Ferenczi and beyond

Abstract

With the aid of passages of Ferenczi's paper on elasticity, and of the correspondence between Freud and Ferenczi, the author points out the conceptual difference between Freud and Ferenczi, evokes the historical roots of this difference, and highlights its continuing importance in present-day psychoanalysis.     

Childhood Sexual Assault,Quality of Life,and Psychiatric Comorbidity in Veterans With Military and Civilian Sexual Trauma

Veterans with military sexual trauma (MST) are at risk for a variety of psychiatric conditions, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. Survivors of MST are also likely to experience diminished quality of life (QoL). Individuals with higher lifetime incidence of sexual trauma may also be at increased risk for poorer outcomes in QoL and psychiatric symptomatology. The differences in psychological sequelae among those who have experienced sexual trauma as children, and those whose sexual trauma exposure is limited to adulthood are relatively understudied. The majority of sexual trauma literature has focused primarily on civilian trauma, and comparatively few studies have specifically examined psychosocial sequelae (e.g., QoL) in veterans with MST. This study examined how childhood sexual abuse (CSA) affects overall QoL as well as severity of PTSD and depressive symptoms. Veterans who reported CSA had significantly greater depression symptom severity than veterans who did not. No significant differences in PTSD symptom severity or QoL were found between veterans who did and did not report CSA. Results highlight the need for further examination of the relationship between CSA and depression in veterans with MST-related PTSD who also report CSA.     

The mythic significance of risk-taking,dangerous behaviour

Clinical research using grounded theory methodology was undertaken to discover the origin, structure and meaning of risk-taking, dangerous behaviour in childhood. Three different situations were identified in which risk-taking, dangerous behaviour occurred. These were named illusory-haven, no-haven and perilous-haven: 'haven' describing different object relationships which occurred both inter-psychically and intra-psychically, each of which was dangerous for the child. These configurations of relationships were found to be meaningfully linked to different situations in the Oedipal drama. The 'havens' were also found to be important in linking patterns of family relationships to gang formation. By using the havens in this broader context the insights gained from the Oedipus Complex are seen to be more widely applicable. Es wurde klinische Forschung , die sich auf theoretische Methodik beruft, benutzt, um den Ursprung, die Struktur und die Bedeutung von risikohaftem, gefährlichem Verhalten in der Kindheit zu entdecken. Es wurden drei verschiedene Situationen identifiziert, in denen risikohaftes, gefährliches Verhalten auftrat. Diese wurden illusorische Oase, keine Oase und gefähliche Oase genannt: 'Oase' beschreibt verschiedene Objektbeziehungen, die sowohl interpsychisch als auch intrapsychisch auftreten und jeweils gefährlich für das Kind sind. Diese Beziehungskonfigurationen konnten bedeutungsvoll mit verschiedenen Situationen des ödipalen Dramas verbunden werden. Die 'Oasen ' wurden auch als bedeutend dafür gesehen, Muster von Familienbeziehungen mit Gangformationen in Verbindung zu setzen. Indem man die Oasen in diesem weiteren Zusammenhang benutzt, werden die Einsichten, die aus dem ödipuskomplex gewonnen werden, als weitreichender anwendbar gesehen. Des recherches cliniques utilisant la méthodologie dite de la théorisation ancrée (analyse qualitative et catégorielle) ont été entreprises afin de déceler, chez l'enfant, l'origine, la structure et la signification de la prise de risques et du comportement dangereux. Trois situations différentes, dans lesquelles ce type de comportement se produit, ont été identifiées. Elles sont appelées «havre illusoire», «absence de havre» et «havre périlleux»; le mot «havre» est ici employé pour désigner les différentes relations objectales, inter-psychiques comme intra-psychiques, qui s'avèrent dangereuses pour l'enfant concerné. Ces configurations relationnelles sont liées de façon significative à certains avatars du drame ?dipien. L'idée du «havre» est une représentation qui permet de relier certaines configurations relationnelles familiales à la formation de «gangs» ou de bandes. La notion de «havre» utilisée dans ce contexte élargi permet de conclure que les insights acquis grâce au complexe d'?dipe sont d'application plus générale. Sono state fatte delle ricerche cliniche utilizzando una metodologia teorica fondata per scoprire l'origine, la struttura e il significato del comportamento di correre rischi e di quello pericoloso nell'infanzia. Si identificarono tre diverse situazioni in cui si presentava tale comportamento. Queste furono denominate rifugio-illusorio, non rifugio e rifugio pericoloso: 'il rifugio' descrive diverse relazioni d'oggetto sia a livello inter-psichico che intra-psichico, ciascuna delle quali e' stata pericolosa per il bambino. Risulto' che queste configurazioni di relazioni erano significativamente correlate a diverse situazioni nel dramma edipico. I 'rifugi' erano anche importanti nel correlare modelli di relazioni familiari alla formazione della gang. Usando i rifugi in questo contesto piu' ampio le insights ricavate dal complesso edipico possono essere piu' largamente applicabili.     

Creating a ‘psychological nest’ for vulnerable infants and children: an interview with Annette Mendelsohn

This is an edited version of a recent interview with Annette Mendelsohn, Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist at the Royal Free Hospital, London, UK. It aims to make available in published form Mendelsohn's thinking and approach in relation to her work with traumatised children in a hospital setting. Mendelsohn also discusses her work in a neonatal intensive care setting and the way in which approaches to psychosocial care in the hospital setting have changed over the course of her professional life.     

Two boys—one event

The background of this paper is an investigation of child survivors from the Holocaust; in a study of interviews of these survivors, it could be concluded that past traumatic experiences are recovered not as memories (in the usual sense of the word), but as affects invading the present. Accordingly, affects seem to tell the story of the past traumatic experiences. In this paper, the author investigates two accounts (separately told by two survivors) of the same event in the Kielce ghetto. The two accounts present similarities, but also differences, and the author discusses these in relation to the concepts of historical and narrative truth, as well as in relation to construction and reconstruction, concluding that the interviews give a sketch of how the experiences have become idiosyncratically registered in the minds of the interviewees.