The Psychoanalytic Quarterly 1987/4. [antikvár]

THE ROLE OF IDENTIFICATION IN THE RESOLUTION OF TRAUMA: THE ANNA FREUD MEMORIAL LECTURE BY HAROLD P. BLUM, M.D. In studies on the consequences of trauma, identifications have too often been overlooked. Trauma is experienced as an assault and can lead to an automatic, unconscious identification with the aggressor. Trauma is associated with a constellation of identifications, including identification with the aggressor, with the victim, with the rescuer, and with the caregiver. Identifications are important for the recovery from and mastery of trauma. The concept of identification with the aggressor was formulated by Anna Freud as a chapter in her classic book, The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense (1936). It is related to the mastery of stress and shock trauma and to the tendency of the ego to be active where it was formerly passive or helpless. Identification with the aggressor can be seen in situations ranging from pediatrics to politics, from child abuse to terrorism. The concept is intrinsic to the explanation of why abused children may become abusive parents, why haughty snobbery may follow social humiliation, and why hostages of terrorists may adopt the convictions of their captors. Anna Freud's work with children and their parents has demonstrated the continuous interaction of psychic reality and external reality. Identification with the aggressor is an intrapsychic reaction which takes into account real models and threats, and actual traumatic experience. Building upon the work of Freud and Anna Freud, I shall The Anna Freud Memóriái Lecture was presented in Vienna, November 14, 1986.