The Shattered Self A Psychoanalytic Study of Trauma [Paperback]

Ulman and Brothers utilize a unique clinical research population of rape and incest victims and Vietnam combat veterans to argue that trauma results from real occurrences that have, as their unconscious meaning, the shattering of central organizing fantasies of self in relation to selfobject. Their innovative treatment approach revolves around the transformation of these shattered fantasies in the intersubjective context of the transference-countertransference neurosis.1. Trauma: Reality or Fantasy? Conundrum for Psychoanalysis  2. Psychoanalytic Schools of Thought on Trauma  3. Incest: The Dissolution of Childhood Fantasies  4. Rape: Violation of the Heroine   5. Combat: The Vicissitudes of Rambo : Fantasies in Adolescence  6. A Self-Psychological Approach to Analytic Therapy of the Trauma Patient  7. Treatment Case Studies of Incest, Rape, and Combat  8. Final Considerations

I would recommend The Shattered Selfwholeheartedly for its cogent summary of self psychology and developmental theory, as a treatise of trauma and its impact, and as a clinical manual with case illustrations of the treatment of trauma in patients regardless of their diagnostic configuration.  I predict it will substantially alter your view of an approach to individuals who have experienced any of a broad range of traumas.

- David Kreuger, M.D., Contemporary Psychology

In three in-depth case studies, the authors demonstrate how psychoanalytic therapy informed by self-psychology theory can overcome the effects of trauma through the transformation of shattered fantasies in the intersubjective matrix of the transference-countertransference neurosis.  In addition to being a record of a research project integrating clinical data from different types of trauma, this book is also an important contribution to the knowledge about PTSD.  This well-wril3$