[Waterloo12345]

Hi All,

I was researching splitting where there has been no BPD diagnosed and the trauma occurred at around 3 yrs and came upon this article abstract.

I recall a poster said they might be able to access articles through their uni. If any one can I would be very grateful.

Best, w.

Splitting as a consequence of severe abuse in childhood.

Burland JA. Psychiatr Clin North Am. 1994.

Authors

Burland JA1.

Author information1Philadelphia Psychoanalytic Institute, Pennsylvania.

Citation

Psychiatr Clin North Am. 1994 Dec;17(4):731

Abstract

Clinical data suggest that Kernberg's description of splitting as a defense mechanism is useful in conceptualizing the psychological consequences of abuse in childhood in certain patients. The splitting in these patients is similar to his description of splitting in borderline patients in that it compartmentalizes and sequesters certain overwhelming and painful ego states accompanying negative introjects of the betraying primary object and the betrayed self. These sequestered introjects, furthermore, act as automatons, generating behaviors that arbitrarily re-enact their content even though the patient remains consciously unaware of their historical meaning. Another consequence of the sequestration of these traumatic introjects is that their affects retain their initial power and primitive quality, unmodulated by the usual homogenizing process that is a part of the synthesis of part-object introjects into whole-object introjects; the sequestration, therefore, often painful in itself, must nevertheless be rigidly maintained lest traumatic anxiety in the face of overwhelming affects be re-experienced. Shengold calls the sequence of events that results in this brittle but stubborn painful constriction of the personality "soul murder." He borrowed the phrase from Freud who used it to refer to what Schreber had suffered at the hands of his sadistic father. That phrase--"soul murder"--may sound melodramatic, but it powerfully conveys what these patients communicate of their experience of themselves. As with Kernberg's patients, the defensive splitting serves to protect the positive introjects. These patients fear their negative introjects, even more than they feel uncomfortable about the split. They fear their desperate rage will destroy their love objects, and leave them feeling abandoned and hating themselves. As one of my patients put it: "I fear that my destructive anger will leave me all alone in a sea of rubble of my own making." In the transference, he feared destroying me and our positive bond. In these cases it would seem that the turning to splitting occurred at a later age than it does with Kernberg's borderline patients. His proposition is that the developmentally normal "splitting," related to the undifferentiation of the infantile ego, persists as a defensive splitting, perhaps as a consequence of a consistently derailed mother-child dialogue; whereas in my patients it would seem that the normal developmental splitting had waned as ego differentiation proceeded, but that in the face of overwhelming traumata at perhaps 3 or 4 years of age, the primitive defense was invoked regressively.(

[here today]

I don't have access to a data base, but I feel I understand what the abstract is about.

I came across Shengold and the term soul murder maybe 12 years ago. And I told my T at the time about it, that I felt mine had been and that I fear I had murdered my daughter's as well.

After I left the session it occurred to me that, no, the soul probably wasn't murdered or I could not have identified with the term. Instead, it was probably seriously anesthesized. And I think it has come to life a little bit in the intervening 12 years. But the rage, too, which has had some adverse consequences.

The T at the time was a social worker and we didn't discuss the soul murder concept after that.

Seems to me it's a useful concept, though frightening as all get out.

[Waterloo12345]

Originally Posted by here today

I don't have access to a data base, but I feel I understand what the abstract is about.

I came across Shengold and the term soul murder maybe 12 years ago. And I told my T at the time about it, that I felt mine had been and that I fear I had murdered my daughter's as well.

After I left the session it occurred to me that, no, the soul probably wasn't murdered or I could not have identified with the term. Instead, it was probably seriously anesthesized. And I think it has come to life a little bit in the intervening 12 years. But the rage, too, which has had some adverse consequences.

The T at the time was a social worker and we didn't discuss the soul murder concept after that.

Seems to me it's a useful concept, though frightening as all get out.

Yep seems v v frightening.

We touched on anger today in session. For me it was a roiling wave, like that Japanese print of waves, except the biggest wave was a monster set to devour me and the colours were more turgid and oily and murky. I slammed shut that vision pretty quickly!

I'll do a bit more googling on shengold thanks.

Eta: or not! Don't thibk am in a place for soul murder just yet. Splitting seems bad enough. Where the spark of the child is buried way way down.