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Silence as the Voice of Trauma

Silence as the Voice of Trauma Silence is a key to the unspoken world of the patient. Rather than interpreting silence as a defensive maneuver, the analyst may understand this disruption as a royal road to the patient’s traumatic experiences. The author proposes to recognize traumatic silences in the analytic process and the transference as a re-experiencing of past, unpredictable traumatic affective states and memories. Silences in this context are both a repeat of a disconnecting experience as well as a manifestation of a silencing identification with the original silencer. The clinical material illustrates effects of a German mother’s World War II (WWII) personal traumata and collective shame-based silence on her daughter’s self and good object development. In the daughter’s analysis, the patient and the analyst, who herself experienced similar WWII traumata, face the pain of trauma recovery and un-silencing. The author suggests that the deadening effect of past traumata may be reversed by an analytic process of re-membering and re-speaking for both the patient and analyst. This allows for a more transparent, subjective experience in the transference and a verbal integration of ego functions. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The American Journal of Psychoanalysis Springer Journals

Silence as the Voice of Trauma

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis , Volume 74 (2) – Jun 2, 2014

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References (67)

Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 by Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis
Subject
Psychology; Clinical Psychology; Psychotherapy; Psychoanalysis
ISSN
0002-9548
eISSN
1573-6741
DOI
10.1057/ajp.2014.5
pmid
24882074
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Silence is a key to the unspoken world of the patient. Rather than interpreting silence as a defensive maneuver, the analyst may understand this disruption as a royal road to the patient’s traumatic experiences. The author proposes to recognize traumatic silences in the analytic process and the transference as a re-experiencing of past, unpredictable traumatic affective states and memories. Silences in this context are both a repeat of a disconnecting experience as well as a manifestation of a silencing identification with the original silencer. The clinical material illustrates effects of a German mother’s World War II (WWII) personal traumata and collective shame-based silence on her daughter’s self and good object development. In the daughter’s analysis, the patient and the analyst, who herself experienced similar WWII traumata, face the pain of trauma recovery and un-silencing. The author suggests that the deadening effect of past traumata may be reversed by an analytic process of re-membering and re-speaking for both the patient and analyst. This allows for a more transparent, subjective experience in the transference and a verbal integration of ego functions.

Journal

The American Journal of PsychoanalysisSpringer Journals

Published: Jun 2, 2014

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