Paper Session B
8. In The Trenches Treating a
Dissociated Trauma Survivor:
A Detailed Process Analysis
Presenter: |
Stuart D. Perlman, PhD |
Discussant: |
Linda Chernus, MSW |
Self Psychology Page | 23rd Conference Program
Overview
Increasingly in the literature dissociated identity disorder and severe dissociated states are becoming more widely accepted (Bromberg, 1999; Davies and Frawley, 1992, 1994; Perlman, 1999). Yet in an area like this where theory and practice seem unclear and tentative, it has been suggested and modeled by Stoller (Gelber, 1998), that publishing extended case presentations in detail with less theory are a way of beginning to build the literature upon which theory and clinical practice can be better developed. The moment-to-moment pragmatics of how to work with the transference, personalities splits, and select the necessary techniques and stances that may be useful with these patients has not fully been explored and illustrated. Even with a very profoundly dissociated and regressed patient one can have a deep and meaningful analytic process in the treatment including: dreams and their interpretation, working in the transference, developing insight, and transmuting internalizations. This paper will attempt to illustrate this using primarily the process of one session.