Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 6, 2025

Use of a Psychophysiological Script-driven Imagery Experiment to Study Trauma-related Dissociation in Borderline Personality Disorder
Published on: March 8, 2018
Trauma and the metaphor of oppression
1William Alanson White Institute of Psychoanalysis, Psychiatry, and Psychology, New York, NY, USA.
Abstract:
In his early writings, Freud thought of trauma in two very different ways. The term could refer to any experience that is subjectively unbearable, or, as epitomized by the seduction hypothesis, it could refer to something that was done to one person by another. In today's psychoanalytic climate - and in the broader culture as well - the second way of conceptualizing trauma dominates our discourse, replacing the elegant ambiguity of Freud's early thinking. In this paper I explore the clinical implications of this largely implicit shift in meaning, considering what may have been lost in the process.
Related Concept Videos
Traumatic Memory
Repressed Memory
Fundamental Attribution Error
The Stanford Prison Experiment
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
Symptoms and Behavioral Manifestations
A spectrum of distressing symptoms characterizes PTSD. Recurrent flashbacks, where individuals involuntarily relive traumatic events,...
Social Traps

