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

Abstract

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.

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

“…I hypothesize that severe trauma have a splintering effect upon the personality which then triggers attempts at restitution that struggle to piece together the shards of a blown-apart psyche to achieve some semblance of coherence. However, these restitutive efforts frequently lead to the formation of a brittle and rigidly constructed traumatic organization (Brown, 2005). This organization is characterized by concrete thinking (Bass, 2000;Brown, 1985) that dooms the patient to repetitive enactments and he is unable to learn from experience (Bion, 1962a).…”

Bion, Rangell, and Haynal: A pioneer and two protagonists of contemporary psychoanalysis – a selection of papers of the Bion 2008 Conference and two interviews

“…To be even more specific, Billy proposed to play a game in which he would be a mummy, and thus introduced what Brown, utilising Ferro's work, calls ''the mummy character,'' that is a possible ''condensation of my worry about my mommy and his worry, in the moment, about his distressed analyst/father'' and/or ''a narrative creation, born out of a field of emotion which we both shared that involved painful feelings about parental loss and wishes to restore valued objects.'' This paper, a little jewel, comes from an author who at the Bion Conference of São Paulo presented a very good paper, ''The cognitive effects of trauma: Reversal of alpha function and the formation of a beta screen'' (Brown, 2005), and who in 2006 became a member of the North American editorial board of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis.…”

Treatment of developmental stress disorder: mind, body and brain – analysis and pharmacology coupled

“…Arousal and affective tone is higher. From an analytic perspective, what we encounter are extremes of emotionality with little ability to reflect or modulate feelings or behaviours, and what might be described as primitive mental activity (Robbins ) with little alpha processing capacity (Bion ; Brown ).…”