[Early childhood violent and sexual traumatization]

Violent and sexual child abuse represents an extreme traumatization that can continue to influence the lives of affected children into adulthood. Freud (1917) provided a concept of the influence of this extreme form of traumatization in his model of the traumatic neurosis. It is described as an after-the-fact attempt to master the flood of sensations that characterizes the trauma. More recent theoretical models identify a collapse of the ego during trauma as well as the effects of this collapse on the formation of self and object representants at the heart of the traumatic event. As a result of the collapse of the ego during trauma, the traumatized individual does not succeed in forming mature memories of the experience. Immature memories of trauma are marked by, among other things, very diffuse, near physical feelings that cannot be integrated into the ego (Cohen 1980). From the perspective of object relation theories, the lack of integration of "bad" and "good" self of the traumatized individual is emphasized by the abuser. Drawing on case studies, the authors illuminate the importance of the principle of the answer (Heigl-Evers/Heigl 1979, 1983) to the efforts to differentiate and integrate in the treatment of extremely traumatized patients.