ABSTRACT
A physical wound is an injury that breaks the protective barrier of the skin and causes damage to that which lies beneath the surface. This can be mild damage that can heal easily, or it can be severe damage that will need time and treatment for recovery to take place. This chapter considers what it is that constitutes an emotional trauma, that it can be an unusual and extreme event, and it can be an everyday almost unnoticeable event that can trigger traumatised responses. It provides the case examples of trauma. A psychoanalytic understanding of the meaning and importance of traumatic events has been developed by listening to people who survive such events and by trying to notice how they process them, both in the short term and in the long term. Many people can use their relationships with others to help them to recover from trauma.
