Trauma

Depth psychologist Donald Kalsched (1996), in his book, The Inner World of Trauma: Archetypal Defenses of the Personal Spirit, addressed the problematic relationship within the ego-Self axis of people who have experienced trauma at a young age. Kalsched postulated that in cases of childhood trauma, the primitive Self attempts to protect the young child by creating a split in the psyche. Jung (1937/1978) stated that “the tendency to split means that parts of the psyche detach themselves from consciousness to such an extent that they not only appear foreign, but lead to an autonomous life of their own” (p. 121). Children are therefore unaware of reactions, feelings, and beliefs that are parts of themselves.

Over time, the split-off part of the psyche originally created to protect the child can take on qualities of both an inner protector and inner persecutor, forces that Kalsched (1996) described as part of a self-care system. Kalsched (1996) saw the self-care system as a second line of defense when one’s primary defenses, or defense mechanisms, have been breached. The self-care system, in the form of the protector/persecutor, will go to great lengths to protect the individual from harm. The self-care system keeps the individual safe by not allowing him or her to venture beyond the parameters of defenses without painful internal consequences in the form of the internal persecutory voice described above.

Kalsched’s (1996) answer to this situation was to create between therapist and client “a safe physical space and a safe interpersonal space in which the dreams and fantasies can emerge” (p. 27). Providing this space allows the patient to experience the “previously unfelt mourning . . . so she can ‘see’ it and relate to it. Her grief unites, as it were, the hope of anticipation and the violent disappointment of loss” (p. 27). This, in effect, unites the polarities within the self-care system and begins the healing process, which eventually will unite the psychic split, thus giving birth to a new relationship between the ego and Self.

In more evolved forms, primary defenses help the ego achieve goals and fit into society, but often this seems to occur at the detriment of the aims of the Self, which creates internal conflict. More evolved defenses allow people to be part of the larger society, but not necessarily in authentic ways compatible with the Self.