Traversing the Fault Lines

Trauma and Enactment

Bibliographic Data

ID20178743
AuthorsJo Stuthridge (corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume42
Issue4
Pages238-251
Publication date2012-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueTransactional Analysis Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0362-1537 • E-ISSN: 2329-5244
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1177/036215371204200402
OpenAlexW2111483474
LanguageEN
Citations received26
References cited30

Trauma can shatter the mind, creating rifts in consciousness or fault lines in the psyche. Continuity within the self becomes fractured. This article explores links between trauma, dissociation, and enactment. When dissociation forms a primary response to trauma, the mind cuts off unbearable elements of experience from the subjective “I.” Later these disowned fragments may intrude in the present as transferential enactments. Internal fault lines often emerge as ruptures in relationships. Therapist and client must traverse these interpersonal fault lines to integrate unwanted parts of the self. The author presents two clinical vignettes to illustrate how the therapist's script can become entangled in mutual enactments. When enactments are resolved, bridges in the interpersonal realm increase continuity within the self as well as the capacity for intimacy. This article proposes that healing the fractured self requires an encounter with otherness, which expands Berne's (1961) thesis about the human hunger for recognition

Consciousness · Interpersonal communication · Political science · Psyche · Psychoanalysis · Realm · Law · Personality Disorders and Psychopathology · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Social Psychology · Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy

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