Dreams of War and Recovery: A Closer Look at Kalsched's Self-Care System After Trauma
General Material Designation
[Thesis]
First Statement of Responsibility
Magers, Adam J.
Subsequent Statement of Responsibility
Altman, Avrom
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
Pacifica Graduate Institute
Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.
2019
GENERAL NOTES
Text of Note
65 p.
DISSERTATION (THESIS) NOTE
Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree
M.A.
Body granting the degree
Pacifica Graduate Institute
Text preceding or following the note
2019
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
In Trauma and the Soul: A Psycho-spiritual Approach to Human Development and Its Interruption, Donald Kalsched demonstrated how dreams illuminate the archetypal defenses of the unconscious in the lives of trauma survivors. Kalsched focused heavily on dissociation, demonstrating that although the defense serves a protective function, it also comes at a high cost, robbing a person of vitality and wellbeing. As a survivor of trauma from childhood and the Iraq War, I draw on my dreams and discoveries in analysis in using heuristic and alchemical hermeneutic methods of inquiry to argue that a broader view of the self-care system is necessary. All psychological defenses can have soul-robbing and vitality-starving effects, and the type of defense is less important than the intensity of its application and how it distorts the personality.