The experience of trauma that converts to destruction of the self

A Consideration of Suicidal Attack During Times of Global Distress

Bibliographic Data

ID6130482
AuthorsMark J Goldblatt (0000-0002-0391-8947, Harvard Medical School, corresponding author), Elsa Ronningstam (0000-0002-7615-962X, Harvard Medical School), Stephen Briggs (0000-0003-4966-7503, Harvard Medical School), Reinhard Lindner (0000-0002-7766-5110, Harvard Medical School), Martin Teising (Harvard Medical School)
Year2023
Volume46
Issue1-2
Pages94-100
Publication date2023-07-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Scandinavian Psychoanalytic Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0106-2301 • E-ISSN: 1600-0803
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01062301.2024.2303568
OpenAlexW4390977986
LanguageEN
References cited26

Global traumatic distress associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, poverty, and war contributes to the individual’s subjective experience of painful suffering. Although suicide rates appear to decrease during times of major upheaval, fantasies of self-destruction act defensively to assuage the pain of unbearable suffering and may progress to self-attacking actions. In this paper, we suggest that integrations of psychoanalytic and social perspectives are useful in dealing with the subjective experience of an unbearable external reality and an intolerable internal state that converts external hostility to self-destructive thoughts and actions

Distress · Hostility · Political science · Poverty · Psychoanalysis · Psychoanalytic theory · Psychotherapist · Law · Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Social Psychology · Suicide and Self-Harm Studies

Tools

Open DOI