ABSTRACT
The "here-and-now" quality of flashback memories is displayed sometimes in the form of bodily enactment. In Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis, as in contemporary treatments for post traumatic stress disorder, the aim was to help the patient shift from repeating, or reliving, to remembering, and, thus, to be able to function optimally in the present without excessive distortion by experiences of the past. The distinction between remembering and repeating, commonly noted in discussions of post traumatic stress disorder, is close to Freud's original thoughts on transference as a resistance to remembering. Traumatic experience does indeed hijack the body. F. Shapiro describes the action of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing as one of facilitating the physiological system in adaptive information processing. In Freud's model, the psyche evolves towards adaptation to reality by creating an "ego" which blocks the primary process and the direct expression or discharge of desire, forcing the movement of neuro-cathexis along side-paths.
