ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the theoretical foundations of a psychoanalytic understanding of torture. The object, in order to exist as a subjective element, needs a psychic space, in which an exchange between recognized and alien aspects of self may occur: the area of the Reflective Triangle. As outlined before, Philip M. Bromberg is interested in the introspectively and clinically observable coexistence of 'multiple versions of the self', that may represent crystallizations of different interactional scheme. At the core of Bromberg's vision, is a complex view of mind as a nonlinear system of loosely-related self states and self-representations. Paradoxical Multiple Self States are characterized by a sense of centre and wholeness, a sense of agency and shared power, responsibility, in other words, a sense of being endowed with subjectivity. Monolithic Self States are more or less durable states, depending on the emotional atmosphere of the context in which the self is operating.
