The Dissociative Mind in Psychoanalysis

Howell, Elizabeth F.; Itzkowitz, Sheldon

doi:10.4324/9781315679211

Cited by 41 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…All people use defenses as part of their lives, but higher functioning individuals tend to use defenses that are flexible and adaptable rather than rigid and stern (Goldstein, 1995). Many survivors of early abuse tend to develop defenses that are directly responsible for their early survival; these defenses, however crucially useful in the early life, tend to develop into rigid maladaptive patterns of behavior as the survivors mature (Howell, 2005). Some of these defenses have also been traced to brain changes in structure and function, which originate from early traumatic experiences (Schore, 2009;Perry, 2011;Divino & Moore, 2010).…”

Section: Defenses Coping Mechanisms and Strengthsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ego Functions, Defenses, and Countertransference: A Beginning School Social Work Student’s Way to Professional and Personal Growth

Tsarfati¹

2017

International Journal of School Social Work

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Section: Defenses Coping Mechanisms and Strengthsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One of the most identified and discussed defenses prevalent in survivors of early relational trauma is dissociation (Howell, 2005;Davies & Frawley, 1994). Dissociation, as has been termed by Davies and Frawley (1994), is a process through which links of mental events are disconnected.…”

Section: Defenses Coping Mechanisms and Strengthsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ego Functions, Defenses, and Countertransference: A Beginning School Social Work Student’s Way to Professional and Personal Growth

Tsarfati¹

2017

International Journal of School Social Work

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“…Unfortunately, despite encountering clear evidence of child and adult sexual abuse in a large number of female patients, many early psychiatrists refused to recognize this as causal of experiences such as voice-hearing (30). Although the famed neurologist Jean-Marie Charcot came to allow a role of trauma in causing "hysteria, " his focus was on the body and on finding a lesion associated with the condition.…”

Section: Women and Voice-hearing After The Birth Of Psychiatrymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a result, Freud initially claimed a relation between child sexual abuse and voice-hearing, but then retracted it (35). A range of theories exist for why he did this; personal fears, professional fears, and unwillingness to face down patriarchal hegemony are all theorized (30,33). In contrast, another student of Charcot's, Janet, made significant strides toward honoring the lived experiences of women through his influential writings on dissociation, explicitly relating trauma to voice-hearing through this mechanism (36,37).…”

Section: Women and Voice-hearing After The Birth Of Psychiatrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Affective Politics, Debility and Hearing Voices: Towards a Feminist Politics of Ordinary Suffering

Blackman¹

2015

Feminist Review

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This paper explores the experiences of women who "hear voices" (auditory verbal hallucinations). We begin by examining historical understandings of women hearing voices, showing these have been driven by androcentric theories of how women's bodies functioned leading to women being viewed as requiring their voices be interpreted by men. We show the twentieth century was associated with recognition that the mental violation of women's minds (represented by some voice-hearing) was often a consequence of the physical violation of women's bodies. We next report the results of a qualitative study into voice-hearing women's experiences (n = 8). This found similarities between women's relationships with their voices and their relationships with others and the wider social context. Finally, we present results from a quantitative study comparing voice-hearing in women (n = 65) and men (n = 132) in a psychiatric setting. Women were more likely than men to have certain forms of voice-hearing (voices conversing) and to have antecedent events of trauma, physical illness, and relationship problems. Voices identified as female may have more positive affect than male voices. We conclude that women voice-hearers have and continue to face specific challenges necessitating research and activism, and hope this paper will act as a stimulus to such work.

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“…Dissociative tendencies, characteristic of complex post-traumatic states [6,12], could be close to the defense mechanism of splitting [2]. Both originate in repeated early life trauma where the person can survive unbearable anxiety only by scotomizing a part of himself and reality.…”

Section: Research Questionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Borderline functioning and life trauma: a structural approach

Schiltz¹,

Schiltz²

2016

Arch Psych Psych

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SummaryAim: The general aim of this multiannual research project was the exploration of the links between traumatizing life events and current functioning. Material and methods:The research project was based on a sequential design. It included an exploratory study with 206 persons experiencing exclusion and marginalization, followed by a confirmatory study with 195 persons. We present the confirmatory study results, as well as a meta-analysis of both studies. Both studies were based on an integrated quantitative and qualitative research methodology, combining a semi-structured biographical interview, psychometric scales (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Index of WellBeing) and a projective test (Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank). We developed original rating scales for the semi-structured interview and the answers to the Rotter test, allowing a step from qualitative analysis to inferential and multidimensional statistics. Results:With the help of appropriate multidimensional statistical procedures applied to the semi-structured interview (linear principal components analysis) and the Rotter test (multiple correspondence analysis), we were able to draw out differential types of personality functioning based on the prevalent defense mechanisms and coping strategies, linked either to a succession of traumatic events, such as neglect, maltreatment and multiple losses occurring since childhood, or to recent catastrophes. The comparative study of the answers to the Rotter test in the first and third person pointed to differences in the expression of conscious and unconscious needs. Configural frequency analysis applied to HADS identified specific types that could correspond to variants of borderline functioning. The meta-analysis of the exploratory and confirmatory findings showed convergent results at several fundamental dimensions. Our results supported the traumatogenic hypothesis of borderline functioning and pointed towards a partial overlapping of the concepts of splitting and dissociation.Conclusions: More long-term evaluation studies of appropriate psychotherapeutic measures are needed. From the methodological point of view, the most appropriate strategy might be a mixed-methods design combining data from different sources (semi-structured interviews, psychometric scales, projective tests, etc.) and respecting the person-centered approach. This approach combines objectivity with subjectivity in an optimal manner. life traumas/borderline functioning/complex post-traumatic states/meta-analysis/sequential research designWe present some data of a confirmatory study belonging to a multi-annual research project. The overall research results were described in internal research reports. The aim of the study was to highlight the links between traumatizing life events occurring since childhood and current structural organization of personality, with dif-

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The Dissociative Mind in Psychoanalysis

Cited by 41 publications

References 0 publications

Ego Functions, Defenses, and Countertransference: A Beginning School Social Work Student’s Way to Professional and Personal Growth

Ego Functions, Defenses, and Countertransference: A Beginning School Social Work Student’s Way to Professional and Personal Growth

Affective Politics, Debility and Hearing Voices: Towards a Feminist Politics of Ordinary Suffering

Borderline functioning and life trauma: a structural approach

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