This book focuses on detailed case histories of patients with severe traumas. Franziska Henningsen takes us through the successive stages of analysis and provides a graphic impression of the progress of her diagnostic and therapeutic insights into traumatic processes and their treatment. Her main interest is in the development of the transference/countertransference relationship. Traumatic experience has to be actualized within that relationship if it is to be treated successfully. Only in this way can therapeutic change become a feasible proposition. Traumatic micro-processes and trauma-sequel phenomena in transference and countertransference are described and conceptualized. Henningsen demonstrates her point with examples taken from clinical practice: illnesses experienced as traumatic; separation traumas; childhood experiences of violence; adult experiences of violence: and war, torture, and displacement that can engender PTSD. This book is a genuinely original contribution to psychoanalytic treatment of traumas. Reviews: "‘This is a remarkable book. It represents an unparalleled broad and comprehensive description of and reflection on traumatised individuals and the treatment they need. The detailed presentation of clinical and process material brings the reader close to the complex inner and outer reality of severely traumatised patients in a way that gives deep insight into and opens new ways of understanding the horrible after-effects of human-made harm against other human beings. Franziska Henningsen demonstrates how past traumatising experiences are actualised in the transference and are thereby made accessible for psychoanalytic therapy. Henningsen has given us one of the best guides until now for clinicians working with patients traumatised by adverse life-circumstances in different stages of life." - Professor Sverre Varvin, training analyst, Norwegian Psychoanalytical Society, and Oslo and Akershus University for Applied Sciences Table of Contents: Acknowledgements About the author Foreword by Werner Bohleber Introduction: The rift in the ego Part I: Sick Children—Sick Mothers 1) “No sick children in my house today”: death fears in children 2) “That’s my mother’s trauma, not mine”: concretistic fusion, acting-out, symbolisation 3) “We aren’t starving yet”: silence in withdrawal and communicating in images 4) Splitting and fusion Part II: Separation Traumas 5) “This is my daughter. Take good care of her!” From objectless anxiety to separation anxiety 6) “Everyone knows my mother. Everyone except me.” Concretistic fusion and denial of object loss 7) “The greatest danger comes from myself”: destruction and guilt 8) Acting out and compulsive repetition Part III: Experiences of Violence and Abuse in Childhood 9) A helper in search of help: splitting and psychic reality 10) “I want no part of this hell”: en route to perversion 11) “I can look after myself”: destruction and consolation in one and the same object? 12) Love and hate Part IV: Experiences of Violence and Abuse in Adulthood: Torture and War 13) Post-traumatic stress disorder 14) Negative countertransference: depletion and resilience Part V: Conclusion 15) Consequences for psychoanalytic technique 16) Trauma in society and politics: an outlook References Index About the Author: Franziska Henningsen was a member of the German Psychoanalytical Association (DPV) and a training and supervising analyst at the Karl-Abraham-Institute in Berlin. She published numerous articles on psychoanalytic theory and practice with adults and children, especially on psychosomatic diseases, psychic trauma, homosexuality, East-West-Dialogue, the assessment of traumatized refugees. She took many important positions in the German Psychoanalytic Association (DPV) and was the Secretary of the DPV 2000-2004. She was the Chair of the IPA Committee for Outreach and Interdisciplinary Dialogue in 2004-2006. She was a member of the Program Committee for the IPA Congress 2013 in Prague. She was engaged in the development of psychoanalysis in East-Germany and East-Europe. She chaired for a long time the DPV East-West Committee and was a Member of the IPA Moscow Sponsoring Committee. She died in February 2015. |