ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the contemporary literature on trauma and dissociation, which cuts across various theoretical and clinical fields has considered and expanded the theories of Jackson and Janet, tapping into new and important contributions of neuroscience and the developments of infant research and attachment research. Freud and Janet recognized that the altered states of consciousness induced by psychic trauma and those induced by hypnosis were very similar, and conjectured that the somatic symptoms of hysteria were manifestations of painful and traumatic childhood events that the individual was not aware of and did not remember. The presumed distortion of reality by women strongly influenced psychology and its twentieth-century culture, pushing the issue of social exploitation into the background and contributing to neglecting much of the suffering associated with trauma. Clinical research on trauma in contemporary psychoanalysis combines elements of infant research and attachment theory with the principles of relational psychoanalysis.
