From dissociation to symbolization
Reclaiming the self in the analysis of a male survivor of childhood sexual abuse
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21435292 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Denise Phillips (0000-0002-1054-9422, Object Relations Institute, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-12 |
| Publication date | 2026-07-06 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Scandinavian Psychoanalytic Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0106-2301 • E-ISSN: 1600-0803 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/01062301.2026.2698194 |
| OpenAlex | W7167477613 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 4 |
The psychic sequelae of childhood sexual abuse in men often remain unsymbolized, manifesting in dissociation, affect dysregulation, shame, and disturbances in relatedness. These experiences may persist as psychic discontinuities, sequestered within ‘not-me’ self-states. This paper examines the role of emotional attunement and analytic holding – largely absent in childhood – in the long-term treatment of a male patient whose trauma remained psychically partitioned. Drawing on contemporary psychoanalytic theory, including D. W. Winnicott and Wilfred Bion, the patient gradually developed the capacity to tolerate and symbolize previously dissociated affect, allowing traumatic experience to acquire meaning within a more cohesive self. As the transference evolved from object relating to object usage, the analyst became usable in the patient’s shift from defensive self-sufficiency toward dependence and, ultimately, whole-object relating, supporting integration. Within transitional space, literary metaphor functioned as a symbolic bridge, enabling unformulated experience to enter shared symbolic life within the intersubjective field. The case suggests that sustained analytic witnessing, within a holding and containing relational field, may enable the transformation of dissociated trauma, linking developmental deficit, relational process, and symbolic emergence
Attunement · Dissociation (chemistry) · Metaphor · Object (grammar) · Object relations theory · Psychic · Psychoanalytic theory · Self · Sexual abuse · The Symbolic · Child Abuse and Trauma · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |