ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the technical problems arising in the analyses of patients who have undergone pre- or immediately post-natal catastrophic traumas. These traumas can only be present as mute symptoms without content. There is no possibility of connecting the emotions unleashed by the trauma to memory, of thinking about the psychic events at the origin of these traumas. The peaceful and beautiful spectrum which evolved into a furiously whirling black hole was an embodiment of the endlessly recurring trace which her mother’s terror had left on her unborn child. Rather the selected fact— the terror common to the two experiences— allowed us to create its meaning, and in that instant, the trauma happened. The problem is, an analyst can prepare herself for these moments but she cannot “produce” them. They happen. If the trauma is not gathered into the analytic container, the patient is left alone with her defences against the fear of continual collapse.
