ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the original trauma, and its direct and long-term effects. Starting from the healthy development of personality, we discuss the psychological effects of the traumatic event, risk factors, and possible reactions, both healthy and pathological, to the traumatic event. We briefly summarize the possible effects of trauma from the point of view of self-development, the early and later relationship factors that play a role in the formation of self-coherence: how the ability of the other (the parent, or in a broader sense the environment) to mirror and contain is linked to a unified sense of self, and with the development of the ability to symbolize and mentalize. We then explore what psychological effects there are to a serious trauma that the individual cannot process: what the direct psychological impact of the trauma is, and what factors assist or impede the processing of the traumatic event and its integration into the individual’s life history.
