ABSTRACT
For some patients, their experience of trauma is clear and they consciously flag it up from the beginning of the analysis; however, for many others the trauma manifests in a more disguised form, in anxieties, somatic reactions or borderline states of mind, and has become embedded in their personality and ways of relating. This chapter outlines some of the ways that early relational trauma can manifest in these situations. The individual in whom borderline states of mind predominate has typically experienced a profound, early relational trauma that cannot be simply "got over". The individual will usually experience powerful counterresponses to the trauma, often mirroring, in a talion-like manner, the original traumatising ways of relating themselves, which also feel unacceptable and causes further self-hatred. The free-floating, affective-somatic elements form what Jung, borrowing from Janet, called "feeling-toned complexes". These complexes incorporate both the primary, primitive defences against the trauma, and the patterns of relating associated with the trauma.
