ABSTRACT
A qualitative distinction may be made between the form of traumatism which disorganises mental functioning at the level of object related cathexis, and that which disorganises the mind at the level of the constitution of narcissism, transpiring as identity suffering and subjectivity disorders. The notion of trauma, on the other hand, appears better suited to designating the traumatic logic working at an earlier and more archaic level, jeopardising narcissistic cathexis and, consequently, the constitution of the ego. S. Freud explained the aetiology of his patients’ neuroses in terms of their past traumatic experiences. During this first phase in his thought, he saw the individual’s conflict as being associated with a traumatism he had undergone. As of 1920, Freud envisaged traumatism as being directly associated with the contradictions within the economy of the psychic apparatus. Narcissistic splitting lies at the origin of the negative effects of the trauma Freud refers to in Moses and Monotheism.
