ABSTRACT

Previously-laid foundations of understanding concerning trauma and the concept and process of splitting are further examined and elaborated upon, with particular reference to splitting as being relationally based and traumatically derived. Ambivalence is re-contextualized in terms of its traumatic and relational foundations, particularly regarding encounters between Sorg, GEM, and PO. Specific areas of attention are: 1) birth of the false-self and evolution of its secondary autonomy; 2) fight, flight, freeze, and fawn; 3) guilt, anxiety, and shame; 4) trauma’s effects on the interplay between psyche and soma; 5) TEND foundations of affects, maturity, and splitting; 6) alexithymia; 7) cumulative traumas and their effects on mind and body; and 8) mourning the loss of primary objects.