Life within death: Towards a metapsychology of catastrophic psychic trauma

Tarantelli, Carole Beebe

doi:10.1516/002075703768284669

Cited by 8 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…The analysis of severely traumatized patients is aimed at restoring the normal developmental process by which β-elements are converted into α-elements by α-function, transforming previously 'undigested facts' into memories, and, ultimately, helping patients integrate-historicize these memories into their ongoing sense of identity. Some patients have been so damaged that their ability to think, imagine and dream has been foreclosed, thereby interring them even more deeply in a 'life within death' (Tarantelli, 2003). In such cases, the analyst is called upon to offer his α-function to help the patient bear what is unbearable, to think what is unthinkable and to transform the 'undreamable experience' (Ogden, 2004) into a symbolic and three-dimensional occurrence that is a true dream (Weiss, 2002).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Julie's museum: The evolution of thinking, dreaming and historicization in the treatment of traumatized patients

Brown¹

2006

The International Journal of Psychoanalysis

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The author contends that, following Freud, trauma may be viewed as a disruption of the ego's 'protective shield' and that a central factor of this shield is an internalized relationship to a thinking-containing mother. Severe trauma destroy this inner connection, resulting in the reversal of a-function and the establishment of a rigid traumatic organization (ss-screen) that brings coherence to the shattered psyche. However, this is an 'organized chaos' in which concrete forms of thinking predominate. The patient's ability to think, dream and imagine is significantly curtailed and she is consequently locked in a traumatic world from which she is unable to evolve. He offers a detailed case history to illustrate these points and the vital role the analyst's imaginative capacities play in the analysis of such individuals. Finally, he addresses the development of the capacity to represent the trauma, starting with primitive, often somatically encoded experiences, and evolving toward the capacity for historicization.

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confidence: 99%

Julie's museum: The evolution of thinking, dreaming and historicization in the treatment of traumatized patients

Brown¹

2006

The International Journal of Psychoanalysis

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“…It is not uncommon to find that those who commit violent acts have themselves been subject to violent abuse in childhood. Violence, in the context of catastrophic psychic trauma, may be an expression of a tidal wave of anguish that mounts up and threatens to overwhelm an individual, and may function as a limiting container: the pain is converted into physical pain and is limited to the wounds (Tarantelli, , p. 924). The experience of pain also is a sign that the body is alive in the face of the person feeling deadened.…”

Section: Psychoanalytic Dreamtimementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Individuals can manically deny the pain and seek solace in narcotics and alcohol or can withdraw and retreat from the world and become depressed, overwhelmed with a suicidal sense of futility, or can externalize their painful feelings and convert them into violent acts. When there is catastrophic psychic trauma, a headlong descent into the most primitive levels of functioning can occur, which can extinguish mental activity, produce psychic death and lead to an internal desert devoid of anything human (Tarantelli, , p. 918). If, however, the feelings become a sorry business filled with heartache and voiced, experienced and then worked through, so that one is able to live with the pain (Gerson, , 1351) and to fill the gaps in memory (Freud, , p. 148), then recovery and finding the good in life is possible.…”

Section: Psychoanalytic Dreamtimementioning

confidence: 99%

The Intervention: Mere Arltyewele (Settle Down Country) – Bear the Gap to Close the Gap

Nathan

2012

Appl Psychoanal Studies

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In 2007 the Northern Territory report on child abuse Little Children Are Sacred, Akelyernernane Meke Mekarle (Aranda) (In our law children are sacred because they carry the two spring wells of water from our country within them) was released. In July–August 2007 the Federal Government enacted the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Bill, in the name of protecting children from abuse, giving the Federal Government wide control over Aboriginal lands, families, and community services; and the Indigenous Affairs Minister total control over Indigenous community governance. More widely known as the Northern Territory Intervention, this dramatic move began with the Howard Government in 2007 and has been largely continued under the Rudd Government. Taking control of a large number of Aboriginal settlements, the Government instituted the following measures: supply of additional police to affected communities; mass health checks for Aboriginal children, initially mandatory but changed to voluntary; new restrictions on alcohol, kava and pornography; the compulsory acquisition of townships with five‐year leases; Commonwealth funding for community services; removal of customary law from bail applications and sentencing in criminal cases; suspension of the system by which visitors to Aboriginal settlements were required to have a permit; quarantining of a portion of welfare benefits to all recipients in designated communities; and the abolition of Community Development Education Projects (CDEP), which had paid unemployed people to work locally. Mal Brough was the Federal Minister for Aboriginal Affairs when the Intervention commenced and he led it with a passion. The army, albeit unarmed, were directed to accompany the new army of people employed to service the Intervention. Intervention measures were exempted from the Racial Discrimination Act, breaching two treaties to which Australia is a signatory – the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Labour Government has essentially upheld the measures of the Intervention. Prime Minister Rudd at Yirrkala on 24 July 2008 spoke about the policy of closing the gap, in terms of life expectancy of adults and children under five, infant mortality, the Year 12 completion rate, and literacy and numeracy achievements, and of closing the gap in a practicable and measurable way. Some changes and modifications have been introduced. The CDEP has been partially re‐introduced, permits re‐introduced and 99‐year leases established. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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“…In the case of massive trauma endured in adulthood, the ego's protective shield is shattered, and the individual is bereft not only of a safe external environment (Laub and Auerhahn 1993), but also suffers an internal splintering of the ego. The degree of devastation may be so complete that the traumatized person collapses completely, as occurred with many victims of the Nazi death camps (Fink 2003;Tarantelli 2003); however, in most situations, there is a restitutive process in which the ego engages in order to adapt (Hartmann 1958).…”

Section: Psychoanalysis Of Traumatized Patientsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Cognitive Effects of Trauma: Reversal of Alpha Function and The Formation of a Beta Screen

Brown¹

2005

The Psychoanalytic Quarterly

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Following a brief review of Freud's writings on trauma, the author discusses relevant theories of Bion, and in particular the concepts of the alpha function and the beta screen. A clinical example is presented in which the patient's relatively recent trauma in adulthood had become fused with prior related experiences, leading to a propensity for repeated enactments in analysis and a failure to learn from experience. Drawing on the analyst's alpha function, the patient was gradually able to use mentalization to transform her rigidly structured traumatic organization. The author highlights the roles of dreams/dream associations and of screen memories in the patient's analysis.

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Life within death: Towards a metapsychology of catastrophic psychic trauma

Cited by 8 publications

References 2 publications

Julie's museum: The evolution of thinking, dreaming and historicization in the treatment of traumatized patients

Julie's museum: The evolution of thinking, dreaming and historicization in the treatment of traumatized patients

The Intervention: Mere Arltyewele (Settle Down Country) – Bear the Gap to Close the Gap

The Cognitive Effects of Trauma: Reversal of Alpha Function and The Formation of a Beta Screen

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