ABSTRACT
During the development of the personality, individuals form an interior image of themselves through which the exterior and emotional events they are subject to, including traumatic events, can be experienced and interpreted. Traumatic events that surpass the individual’s ability to process them may for a shorter or longer time, or even permanently, break the individual’s image of themselves: the event is, temporarily or permanently, impossible to integrate into the self-narrative. Another important factor is the phase of the individual’s development in which the traumatic event occurred. Traumatic events occurring in this phase are particularly destructive, and self-coherence cannot be restored without help. At the same time, there are some traumatic events that in the long term are able to break even the self-image of an individual with a well-formed stable self, and trust in the world is replaced by mistrust.
