ABSTRACT
This introduction chapter presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book describes that very process, the struggle in once-weekly, psychoanalytically-informed treatment to become more, rather than less of a person, following a variety of extremely painful events. It suggests to be read separately, in that each draws upon, and spells out briefly, those elements of psychoanalytic theory that are relevant to its immediate clinical subject. The book talks about the difficult issue of grievance as it is encountered in certain survivors, often pre-dating the trauma developmentally, but equally often given fresh impetus by the trauma. It discusses the powerful adhesions that can develop between the trauma of the present and certain features of the individual's early history, particularly when the trauma is felt to provide confirmation of early phantasies. A traumatic event changes those who suffer it, and all change involves loss.
