Stubley, Joanne (2025) Trauma and mourning: containment and interpretation. Psychodynamic Practice: Individuals, Groups and Organisations . ISSN 1475-3626 (electronic) 1475-3634 (paper)

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Abstract

This paper describes an understanding of complex developmental trauma and the movement that is needed from containment to mourning. The type of activity of the therapist within the therapeutic frame is dependent on the capacity of the patient to be available for interpretation. Trauma disrupts symbolic capacity, leaving the patient in a world of timeless concretism. In order to penetrate this closed system, the therapist will be required to actively work to contain the powerful anxieties of the paranoid-schizoid position, to support the development in the patient of the capacity to make use of interpretations. Loss is inevitable in trauma, and mourning the losses is the essence of working through and processing the traumatic experience.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Received 19 Feb 2025, Accepted 23 Feb 2025, Published online: 03 Mar 2025
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Trauma; loss; mourning; containment; symbolic capacity; interpretation
Subjects:	Emotions, Affective Psychology > Grief/Mourning/Loss Human Psychological Processes > Strange Environment/Situation Human Psychological Processes > Stress
Department/People:	Adult and Forensic Services
URI:	https://repository.tavistockandportman.ac.uk/id/eprint/2961

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