ABSTRACT
The therapist's own experiences, worked and thought through, provide additional assistance. The newest research in neurobiology, memory processes after trauma, and dissociation provides sufficient indications about how the human brain differs in the way it processes overwhelming material and how it processes material it has already come to terms with. Dissociation is therefore not suppression, not a simple forgetfulness, but rather a unique way of dealing with extreme experiences and their resulting eruption into consciousness. Dissociation could also be understood as a kind of adaptation to a traumatic experience. The patient sees herself consciously in a good home and school environment—it's her dissociated inner parts that endure brutal violence. The confusion for the victim doesn't just come from the dissociative disorder; rather, it is already there from the beginning of the torment, from the manmade disaster of violence inflicted deliberately by another human being.
