Psychological trauma destroys everything that helps a person to see the meaning in life. Can psychotherapy help such a patient? How? And within what limits?
«A traumatic event destroys everything that allows a person to experience meaning — the consciousness that he is an autonomous person, a sense of the security of the world and his security, his wholeness and worth, as well as the ability to act and manage his life.» Jungian psychologist Ursula Wirtz and neo-Freudian Jörg Zobeli reflect on how therapy can help such a patient, raising the most pressing questions for psychotherapy: does it have its own value system that you can rely on; to what extent the helping specialist should express his personal position; what is the contribution of feminist ethics to healing processes. They quote a lot of modern, mostly European, authors, so their book can be considered as a kind of anthology. And, coming to the conclusion that help can be provided, they declare the limits of the possible. In cases where a person was tortured, was put on the brink of survival, the hope of a complete “recovery” is illusory: “Psychotherapy can only help you get along better with your spiritual “crippling”, with your personal hell.”
COGITO-CENTER, 328 p.