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This is a recent post from my blog, www.traumatheory.com. It can be found there too.
The current interest in trauma theory has influenced psychoanalysis, so much so that for many people it seems that psychoanalysis is a branch of trauma theory. While this goes too far, it is worthwhile to revisit psychoanalysis in terms of trauma theory. One result is to make some psychoanalysts more relevant, such as Bion and Mitchell, and others less so, such as Melanie Klein, for whom the external environment was never so important. The interest in trauma theory is not just a fad. It stems from an increase in trauma, and an increase in its diagnosis. Many of the therapies practiced by Veterans Affairs are useless or harmful, and one of the main contributions of psychoanalysis is to explain why this is so. It's not just a matter of time and money, but these are important
British Journal of Psychotherapy
Winnicott and the Psychoanalytic Tradition: Interpretation and Other Psychoanalytic Issues - Edited by Lesley Caldwell2009 •
Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy
Cautions on the overgeneralized application of the NICE and CREST recommendations for the treatment of PTSD in the UK: a reflection from practice in Belfast, Northern Ireland2006 •
American Imago
Cartesian Narcissism2016 •
Drawing on D. W. Winnicott’s work, this essay recasts our common conception of the Cartesian cogito—the thinking ego—as the secure foundation for human knowledge, seeing in it less the overcoming of dependency on the senses, preconceived opinions, and authority than a retreat from relationality into a solitary rationality designed to protect against emotional trauma. In this light, the ongoing attachment to Cartesian subjectivity appears as a defensive withdrawal into narcissistic self-enclosure. Recast as Cartesian narcissism, Cartesian philosophy challenges us to recognize how such narcissism may still be acted out and reinforced in contemporary Western culture. Building upon Winnicott’s suggestion that the “capacity to be alone” is paradoxically achieved in relation with another, the essay contrasts the idea of relational autonomy to Cartesian withdrawal into the ego as a goal of emotional maturity.
Psychoanalytic Psychology
Death and annihilation anxieties in anorexia nervosa, bulimia, and self-mutilation2007 •
Revista Suroeste
La Unidad Popular y el fracaso del Socialismo a la chilena2023 •
Scientia Agraria Paranaensis
Resposta da Cultura da Linhaça ao Nitrogênio2015 •
South African Health Review
Test-Trace strategy for disease control and management: South Africa’s control measures to contain the spread of COVID-192023 •
2014 •
Applied Physics Letters
Relaxation characteristics of quantum-dash-based semiconductor lasers2009 •
2024 •