ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author attempts to delineate what contribution psychoanalysis can make to a situation in which actual events fundamentally disrupt lives. She describes the subjective experience of trauma drawn from her therapeutic relationships as well as personal anecdotes. The author proposes a theoretical understanding of those experiences; and deals with some implications for practice in dealing with these patients and their families. In his work with holocaust survivors and their families, H. Krystal identifies three hallmarks of development most assaulted by trauma: differentiation, verbalization and de-somatization. During various forms of physical trauma, the body is handled, pierced, in fact surrendered or expropriated in ways that compromise the most essential boundary. The destruction of language in trauma is the result of a reciprocal between the unthinkable and the unsayable. The subjective experience of actual trauma involves a breakdown of differentiation in terms of body boundaries, life in the external world, perception of time and the capacity for mutuality.
