ABSTRACT
The hypothesis of cumulative trauma designates the nature of those failures of a mother’s role as the protective shield and auxiliary ego vis-à-vis the emergent ego-process and psychosexual maturation and development of the infant-child which result in ego-pathology in the child’s adulthood. This chapter explores how this type of ego-pathology characterized by an organized inner ego state of affectivity and object-seeking involves the transference relationship in certain characteristic ways. It describes further the psychodynamics of this symbiotic omnipotence and what sort of disturbed mother-child relationship it could be related to. In the area of symbiotic omnipotence, primary-process and secondary-process thinking are not only compatible but they cunningly enhance the effectiveness of each type of functioning in the total personality. The symbiotic omnipotence operates alongside a rediscovered reactive executiveness on the one hand and acute self-pitying apathy and inertia on the other. It is important to keep the interplay of these three continuously in mind.
