ABSTRACT
A psychic trauma is an action, either sudden or repeated, that proves harmful because the defences required to protect the individual who undergoes it are not yet ready. It is typical of the traumatic situation that the subject is confronted by a crushing event that cannot be understood or coped with mentally. Infancy, of course, is the time of greatest exposure. The systematic administration of beatings or humiliations has lasting adverse effects on the victim's personality. An ill-treated child may develop a state of evacuation or masochistic passivity or, conversely, may readily, by identification, turn into a sadistic aggressor. The trauma-perversion sequence may be reversed: in children secretly given to sadomasochistic pleasure, traumatic experiences may stimulate sexualization. The relationship between trauma and perversion remains open to other evaluations; there is a need for further clinical material whereby the relative weight of family factors and internal personality dynamics may emerge more clearly.
