ABSTRACT
The actual precipitating situation is often explicitly marked as "the trauma"; implicitly, however, it is rarely regarded as "traumatic" on its own. Analysts use the collective term "trauma" for a severe external event, for the immediate experience of that event, and for a whole spectrum of consequences, ranging from the immediate effect of an overpowering experience to lasting defects in the psychic structure. The statements that traumatization always involves a permanent after-effect and that something—affects, memories, wounds—remains psychically active raise questions about what it is that Freud called the "pathogenic agent". Some are sceptical about whether analytic treatment alone can dissolve trauma-related feelings and perceptions, whether it can reliably help to avoid flashbacks or dissociative states. The literature reviews as well as the interviews had revealed that a clear implicit distinction is being made between the two last categories, the process of traumatization and the lasting pathological changes as a consequence of this process.
