ABSTRACT
During psychoanalytic treatment, signifiers of trauma emerge as indices of past traumatic moments. Such moments find their expression in Annihilation Anxiety, a threat to the survival of ego or self. Moreover, Annihilation Anxiety can change in the course of psychoanalytic treatment. The mental reorganizations can be noted early in treatment, under the aegis of transference engagement or during phases of regression. Each set of observations affirms that transformations do indeed arise in the course of psychoanalytic treatment, delineates distinct pathways of change, and tells a different story. This is an empirically-based study of clinical change and clinical process. However, before spelling out the details we need to sketch out the line of thought that guides this clinical inquiry, the affirmation of clinical concepts and of clinical change.
