ABSTRACT
When an individual has gone through a traumatic event, his normal psychological equilibrium is upset. The stressful life event generally produces feelings that include shock, numbing, anger, rage, denial, disavowal, tension, and grief. Indeed, Freud (1963) defined traumatic neurosis as a response to excessive excitation in a short period of time that penetrated the protective shield of ego defenses. He wrote:
The traumatic neuroses are not fundamentally the same as those which occur spontaneously, which we investigate analytically and are accustomed to treat; neither have we been successful so far in correlating them with our view on other subjects; later on I hope to show where this limitation lies. Yet there is complete agreement between them on one point which may be emphasized. The traumatic neuroses demonstrate very clearly that a fixation to the moment of the traumatic occurrence lies at their root. These patients regularly produce the traumatic situation in dreams; in cases showing attacks of an hysterical type in which analysis is possible, it appears that the attack constitutes a complete reproduction of this situation. It is as though these persons had not yet dealt adequately with the situation, as if the task were still actually before them unaccomplished…. An experience which we call traumatic is one which within a very short space of time subjects the mind to such a high degree of stimulation that assimilation or elaboration of it can no longer be effected by normal means, so that lasting disturbance must result in the distribution of the energy in the mind. (p. 243)
