ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the inevitable and, in some ways, necessary "defeat" of the analyst's ego when working with people who have experienced early relational trauma. It sees this as due both to the fact that the original defeat of the patient's ego, as a result of the trauma, is reenacted with the analyst, and that the primitive, affective- somatic elements split-off from the ego. As a result of the trauma, require the analyst's openness to non-rational forms of functioning in order to be appreciated. The chapter also looks at the kinds of struggles the analyst may experience when working with individuals who have experienced early relational trauma and the experiences they may need to embrace in order to proceed successfully. Adrienne Harris discusses the analyst's contribution to impasse, describing the analyst's recapitulation of caretaking behaviours toward a vulnerable, tragic, or failing parent, sibling, or ancestor figure, in the analytic relationship.
