A Psychoanalytic Understanding of Trauma: Post-Traumatic Mental Functioning, the Zero Process, and the Construction of Reality

A Psychoanalytic Understanding of Trauma presents a theory of the nature of trauma and post-traumatic mental functioning based on the concept of the ‘zero process’.

Joseph Fernando presents a novel, comprehensive, and clinically useful theory of trauma. The author first presents theories of trauma and describes the zero process, related to the breakdown of various ego functions, such as memory and integration, during trauma. Rather than replacing Freud’s ideas of the primary process and repression, Fernando expands on the idea of the mind to include both types of functioning, identifies how they can be differentiated, and examines the different therapeutic techniques they require. He also considers how trauma impacts the construction of reality, the role of human development, the relation of trauma and borderline disorders, and the development of therapeutic technique. Through the unique illustration and narration of cases of three patients, Fernando presents conceptual and clinical innovations.

A Psychoanalytic Understanding of Trauma will be of great interest to psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists in practice and in training.