Sunday, March 20, 2016

Repetition Compulsion






          When I am overwhelmed and cannot defend myself I feel ashamed.  I am struck by the way in which my entire lives seem to play out themes from their childhood like my frequent experiences of abandonment.  Repetition compulsion describes the behaviors, relationships, emotions and dreams that seem to be replays of early trauma.  Freud observed that people continue to put themselves in situations strangely reminiscent of an original trauma in order to learn new solutions.  However, the fragmented elements that perpetuate traumatic emotion and behavior can be completed, integrated, and made whole again.  With this wholeness comes a sense of mastery and resolution.

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