Critical Issues in Trauma Resolution
by Frank A. Gerbode, M.D.
This article is a brief excerpt from Chapter 1 of Beyond Trauma: Conversations
on Traumatic Incident Reduction, available from www.BeyondTrauma.com
Most common approaches to Post-Traumatic Stress Reduction (PTSD) fall
into two categories: coping techniques and cathartic techniques. Some
therapists give their clients specific in vivo methods for counteracting
or coping with the symptoms of PTSD -- tools to permit their clients to
learn to adapt to, to learn to live with, their PTSD condition. Others
encourage their clients to "release their feelings", to have a
catharsis. The idea is that past traumas generate a certain amount of
negative energy or "emotional charge", and the therapist's task is to
work with the client to release this charge so that it does not manifest
itself as aberrant behavior, negative feelings and attitudes, or
psychosomatic conditions.
Coping methods and cathartic techniques may help a person to feel better
temporarily, but they don't resolve trauma so that it can no longer
exert a negative effect on the client. Clients feel better temporarily
after coping or having a catharsis, but the basic charge remains in
place, and shortly thereafter they need more therapy.
Methods that operate on the principle that a permanent resolution of a
case can be achieved require anamnesis, which means recovery of
repressed memories. To understand why clients have to achieve an
anamnesis in order to resolve past trauma, we must take a
person-centered viewpoint, and explain what makes trauma traumatic.
Time and Intention
Let us start by taking a person-centered look at the subject of time.
Objectively, we view time as a "never-ending stream", an
undifferentiated continuum in which events are embedded. But
subjectively, we actually experience time differently. Subjectively,
time is broken up into "chunks" which we shall call "periods" of
time. "A time", for me, is a period during which something was
happening or, more specifically, during which I was doing something,
engaging in some activity. Some periods of time are in the past; some
are in the present. Those periods defined by completed activities are
in the past; those defined by ongoing (and therefore incomplete)
activities are in the present.
The Contents of Present Time
For that reason, we don't experience present time as a dimensionless
point. It has breadth corresponding to the width of the activities in
which we are currently engaged. For example, I am still in the period
of time when I was a father, when I was living in California, when I was
writing this paper, when I was writing this sentence, when I was writing
this word. These are all activities in which I am engaged, and each
defines a period of time with a definite width. In fact, I inhabit a
host of periods of time simultaneously.
Activity Cycles
A period of time has a simple but definite anatomy, determined by the
activity in which you are engaged, which we call an "activity cycle"
or just a "cycle". The period of time (and the cycle) starts when the
activity starts, continues as long as the activity continues, and ends
when the activity ends. The activity in question may be related or
unrelated to trauma. It could be trying to get away from a sniper, or
it could be vacationing. For instance, the period of time "when I was
going from Paris to Rome" starts when I begin the process of getting
from Paris to Rome, continues while I get the train tickets, get on the
train, and eat in the dining car, and ends when I arrive in Paris. If
an activity has started but not ended for me, that period of time is
still ongoing and is part of my present time.
The Ruling Intention
Moreover, each of the activities in which I engage is "ruled" by a
governing intention. In the example I just gave, the intention was to
get from Paris to Rome but, in the case of a combat veteran, it could be
an intention "to get revenge". In effect, therefore, an activity cycle
starts when I formulate an intention, continues so long as that
intention continues to exist, and only ends when the intention is ended.
Therefore, there is an intimate relation between time and intention.
Each intention continues until the intention is fulfilled or unmade.
Present time consists of periods of time that are determined by my
current intentions.
In fact, there are only two ways to end an intention and thus to send a
period of time into the past:
Fulfill it: An intention ends more or less automatically when it is
fulfilled, because you don't keep intending to do things that you know
you have already finished doing.
Discontinue it: Even if an intention is not fulfilled, you can
deliberately and consciously decide to unmake the intention. Unmaking
it, however, requires that you be aware of it and of your reasons for
making it.
The Effects of Repression
Repressing an incomplete cycle makes it destructive and, at the same
time, much more difficult to complete. As mentioned above, to complete
a cycle, I must be aware of the intention that rules it. But if,
because of the trauma it contains, I have repressed the incident in
which I created the intention, I am not aware that I have that intention
or why I have it, so I cannot unmake it! That period of time continues
up into the present, and some energy remains tied up in it. In fact, it
makes sense to define "charge" as "repressed, unfulfilled
intention". Getting rid of charge, then, consists of un-repressing
intentions and then unmaking them.
Now we can understand why anamnesis resolves the effects of past
traumas. To reduce the charge contained in past traumas, the client
must come fully into contact with them, so that he can find the
unfulfilled intentions that he has repressed and why he formulates them,
and unmake them.
About the Author
Dr. Frank Gerbode is the author of the book "Beyond Psychology: An
Introduction to Metapsychology". Learn more about trauma and how to
resolve on his website http://www.TIR.org.
