A Therapeutic Memorial Service for Dead Ego States

Examining a New Dimension of Berne’s Secret Garden

Bibliographic Data

ID20177781
AuthorsEdward T Novak (Private Practice, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume55
Issue1
Pages17-30
Publication date2025-01-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueTransactional Analysis Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0362-1537 • E-ISSN: 2329-5244
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03621537.2025.2438509
OpenAlexW4407236054
LanguageEN
References cited16

The author explores aspects of working with individuals whose experiences of abuse and neglect led to a form of psychological murder that all but annihilated their most private self. This form of core annihilation, referred to as “soul murder” by Leonard Shengold and developed further by Paul Williams, represents a profound disruption beyond what transactional analysis (TA) language typically encompasses. Therapy with such individuals invites mourning for the dead self while finding ways of attending to the fragile core self that remains, as framed within the foundation of Berne’s real self and the concept of the isolate from Donald Winnicott. Also addressed are traumas of later childhood and adulthood that lead to the death of specific self-states or body parts. The work with these individuals includes memorializing the deceased part of the self while helping the person develop aliveness within the self that survived. Attention is given to the therapeutic process of distinguishing between experiences that lead to traumatization and those that lead to the death of a part of the self

Id, ego and super-ego · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Counseling, Therapy, and Family Dynamics · Mathematics · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Social Psychology · Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy