The topic of this thread seems very important to me.

I’m not going to take the time to try to get current quotes to back up what has been decades of reading about psychology and psychotherapy on my part. I’ll just post some thoughts of what I remember that seem relevant. Please feel free to add to or disagree with any of it.

1. Freud identified people with “character disorders”, now “personality disorders” and said they were “unanalyzable”.

2. In contrast to that, when I went into a hospital at 15 (55 years ago) for anorexia nervosa, the prevailing view was that “anything you are willing to face you can overcome”. This does not seem to have been exactly true in my case.

3. If you have dissociation, or dissociated parts, then no matter how much your “normal” self is willing to look at stuff, you may not be able to find it.

4. The dissociated stuff is frequently in a “dark”, split off state or space. When activated it very much NOT resilient. Doesn’t matter what you call it, “transference” or whatever. It is what it is and if/when therapists can’t tolerate it, it’s “doomsday” all over again.

5. As I mentioned in an earlier post, it’s kind of like I had scabs over some of that stuff but not a real “psychological skin”. Let’s say, that because of underlying trauma, similar to an infection, the skin couldn’t heal. Then in therapy the scabs get picked off, trying to let air into to the underlying pathology, but then new pathology from the therapist can get in, too. This is not just re-traumatizing, but also NEW trauma.