Trauma of Human Origin: Effects of Interpersonal Traumatization, and the Prevention and Repair of Trauma Across the Generations

3 Saturdays: Oct. 4 (10am-12 pm ET), Oct. 11 (12:30-2:30 pm ET), Oct. 18 (10am-12 pm ET), 2025, On Zoom

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Registration is now closed. You will be emailed the zoom link a day or two prior to the event.

Have a question? Please contact us at postgrad.psychoanalytic@gmail.com

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Program Description

In this class we will be focusing on the distinction between trauma of human origin and trauma stemming from natural catastrophes or accidents devoid of human intentionality and their different effects on the human mind. I will describe three levels of trauma of human origin, their effects on individuals and society, and how to work with them clinically to heal dissociative dynamics and repair destructive internalized structures, for instance the victim-persecutor identification that can be carried through generations. We will learn how to effectively interrupt the repetition of the traumatic cycle by looking at individual cases from first presentation to actual resolution in what I term the embodied witnessing treatment. This treatment is an original integrative approach in working on interpersonal trauma using psychodynamic psychology, attachment theory, and affective neuroscience.

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Individual Class descriptions:

Class1 (Oct.4, 10am-12n ET)

I will highlight the differences between trauma of human origin and trauma due to natural catastrophes or other accidents devoid of human evil intention against the other. I will offer my contribution on the three levels of trauma of human origin, and present the neurobiological effects on the mind and body, on affect regulation and on personality structure. Dissociation, not repression, is the major structural consequence of trauma of human agency, affecting mind, body and brain. The neurobiology of interpersonal trauma and the structures of the brain affected (limbic system, implicit memory vs explicit or declarative memory, amygdala, hippocampus etc.) will be described in their functioning through single cases. Reference will be made to the work of Allan Schore, Philip Bromberg, Giovanni Liotti, Dori Laub together with my original use of Sandor Ferenczi’s work on trauma which was controversial at the time of Freud. Genetic vs epigenetic transmission will be discussed through the most up-to date-research

Class 2 (Oct. 11, 12:30pm-2:30pm ET; PLEASE NOTE DIFFERENT TIME)

After having presented the differences in the multifunctional dimensional and dynamic diagnoses of single cases, I will distinguish the features of “dissociation,” and how to identify it in the behavior and dynamics of the patient; its traumatic effects on memory will also be considered. Attachment, (secure, insecure and disorganized) will be described from an intergenerational point-of-view, clarifying what can be transmitted intergenerationally and what might be used as a resource.

Through different cases we will learn how to work with affect regulation and how to identify destructive interpersonal dynamics, such as victim-persecutor identification and their unintentional repetition in the here and now of the sessions. Attacks on the body and unconscious ways of attacking self and other will be presented through cases of personality disorders, Complex PTSD and somatic disorders

Class 3 (Oct 18, 10am-12n ET)

I will illustrate the dynamic of intergenerational transmission in its neurobiological aspects and in the defense-repetition interpersonal dynamics. I will illustrate how to work with mind-body-brain (right and left brain, implicit and explicit, primary and secondary processes) in individual therapy with survivors. The victim-persecutor dyad unconsciously imprinted in the mind of survivors and the dissociative mechanisms will be described as they are reactivated in the survivor and projected against their own bodies (with self-harming, suicidality, eating disorders, addictions) and against others though the analysis of acting out (outside the consulting room) and of enactments (within the consulting room). Vignettes of moment to moment process will illustrate how to work through and elaborate affects in various clinical moments; i.e. moments when affect regulation is robust versus moments when affect dysregulation in the individual and in the therapeutic couple prevails. I term “embodied witnessing” the synthetic description of this complex mind-body-brain healing process illustrated through single cases.

 Learning objectives. Participants will learn:

• – How to identify and evaluate the three levels of trauma of human origin (interpersonal trauma) and their effects (in terms of dynamics, neurobiology and influence on personality structure) on the mind, the brain and the body in the individual and in the collectivities.
• – How to identify and distinguish dissociative structures from neurotic structures (mostly using the defense of repression in their system, not dissociation) to borderline or very destructive personalities and how to work with the victim-persecutor internalized dyad of traumatic interpersonal origin.
• – How to analyze, discuss and work with destructive symptoms of severe patients with dissociative structure and interpersonal trauma in the mind-body-brain system, considering also their attachment system and how implicitly these all get repeated in dyadic situations both outside of the therapy as well as in treatment.
• – How to work from first evaluation to major progression of the case until resolution (not only of symptoms but of destructive dynamics and dissociative structures) in patients with personality disorders of traumatic origin, Complex PTSD and some somatic disorders.
• – How to apply an integrative empathic and compassionate mind-body-brain psychotherapeutic approach that I term “embodied witnessing” through practices of witnessing in the relational dyad and in the recognition of the story presented, both the remembered one and the dissociated one that speaks through the body.
• – How to interrupt the cycle of repetition with survivors of trauma of human agency understanding the neurobiological and unconscious transmission for first, second and third generations. Reconciliation of split parts and even forgiveness of self and other (though not an aim in the treatment) might become a healing outcome (as that which overcomes the identification with the aggressor and with the internalized victim-persecutor dyad).

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She served as Full professor of English Literature and Shakespearean Studies until 2012 (University of Chieti, Italy). After a PhD in English Studies (Genoa, 1994), she received a PhD in Literature, Anthropology and Psychoanalysis from the ILA, (Emory University 1999); subsequently she retrained in Clinical Psychology with a graduate degree in Clinical Psychology (2004) and a fellowship for six months at the Institute for Personality Disorders in New York and White Plains, Directed by Otto Kernberg (2004-2005). She is a licensed Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist practicing in Milan, Italy and has obtained the AAI certification from Berkeley, the School directed by the late Mary Main and Erik Hesse, with Instructors Debbie Jakobvitz and Nino Dazzi. She is also certified in the RF with a course under the guidance of Howard Steele, The New School for Social Research.

She is the author of five monographs (in Italian) on Shakespeare, Women’s writing, and literary theory and three volumes in English on trauma and personality disorders, Beyond Individual and Collective Trauma (Karnac Books, 2013), Borderline Bodies, Affect Regulation Therapy for Personality Disorders (Norton, 2018) and more recently Resilience and Survival. Understanding and Healing Intergenerational Trauma (Confer Books, London, 2022.), She co-edited with G Craparo, Unrepressed Unconscious, Implicit memory and Clinical Work (Karnac, 2017), and, with Arnold Rachman, Ferenczi’s Confusion of Tongues Theory of Trauma (Routledge 2023)

Associate Member of SIPP, Teaching and Supervisor Psychoanalyst for SiPeP-SF, a supervisor for several schools of training in Italy and abroad, including the NIP, New York, Confer, London, Switzerland and the National Psychodynamic Institute in Warsaw, Poland; she lectures extensively internationally and in Italy, where she is the Scientific Guarantor of several Institutes of psychodynamic psychotherapy and a consulting supervisor for several institutes, individuals and group professionals.

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For further information or questions please send an email to:

Russell Merritt, LCSW: rgm3@columbia.edu

If mailing a check, please send it to:
PPSI,
PO Box 2031 Madison Square Station
New York, NY 10010-9996

This program is approved for 6 CE Credit Hours.

MPG Consulting LCSW, PLLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work #0119, Mental Health Counselors #0044, Creative Arts Therapists #0021, Marriage and Family Therapists #0030, Psychoanalysts #0034 and Psychologists #0283 as an approved provider of continuing education. A NYC & NYS certified: M/WBE

Following the last class, attendees will receive an online evaluation form from MPG Consulting.

After submitting that form, a second email will be sent containing a printable CE certificate. Please note: Registrants must attend all 3 classes to receive the 6 CE credits. We are unable to offer partial credit for those attending less than 3 classes

Registration closes: Tuesday, September 30th. You will receive a Zoom link two days prior to the beginning of class. 

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