Abstract
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) distinguishes itself from other treatment modalities in that its focus is on the meaning of trauma-related symptoms and behaviors and on the meaning of catastrophic life events to the person as a whole. The analytically oriented therapist is also curious about the ways in which a person’s psyche and soma fend off, experience, cope, and adapt to extreme stress. The analyst is concerned about the dilemmas which the person in the traumatic situation faced, and faces, as a result, in the present. The therapist uses introspection, intuition, and empathy in order to try to comprehend and then verbalize a dilemma which stretches beyond his or her own internal experience. The analytic therapist hopes that insights regarding the meaning of symptoms, both conscious and unconscious, and the consequences of catastrophe can be utilized by the survivor to identify and help master future danger situations and to try to make whole again the fabric of life.
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© 1993 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Lindy, J.D. (1993). Focal Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. In: Wilson, J.P., Raphael, B. (eds) International Handbook of Traumatic Stress Syndromes. The Plenum Series on Stress and Coping. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2820-3_68
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2820-3_68
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