ABSTRACT
In psychotherapy with recurrently traumatised children what developed in the therapeutic space was an empty, dead atmosphere in which endless nothingness seemed to build up. Both in developmental research and psychoanalytic practice, there is unanimous agreement that the repeated experience in childhood of intra and extra-familial violence, as for instance related to war, organised violence, torture, as well as mental or physical abuse and deprivation, may have severe consequences for the developing personality of the child. The inner rest thus gained is fragile and easily breaks down to be succeeded by survival related anxiety, confusion, and compulsive repetition. Play and other forms of creative action presuppose both symbol formation and an ability to maintain a certain permeability of the barrier between inner fantasy and outer reality without a collapse of differentiation. The chapter looks at the characteristics of the compulsion to repeat the traces of traumatic experience in enacted behaviour.
