Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book describes a clinical situation in which the reality of abuse was dissociated, resulting in the obscuring of oedipal dynamics. It discusses the desperate attempts of the infant to secure connection in the face of maternal incompetence. The book also presents a different solution for dealing with psychic deadness. It provides examples of sudden onset trauma occasioned by life-threatening diagnoses. The book utilizes the canvas of extreme sports to illustrate the dichotomy between an “adaptive, creative” use of the body and an omnipotent, Icarus-like, response to early trauma. It examines the empathic task of the analyst who travels with a patient who relies on nihilism as a form of psychic balance. The book proposes the decoding of bodily experience as a vehicle for understanding early trauma.