Repression vs. Dissociation | Two different paths for psychopathology

Program Description

Recent research on trauma, attachment and neuroscience point at a clear divide in psychopathology between disorders based on repression and psychopathologies structured on dissociative mechanisms, a response to severe interpersonal trauma. In this presentation Dr. Clara Mucci will analyze and discuss the main differences between forms of psychopathology and symptoms as they relate to both repression and dissociation. Dr. Mucci will trace the difference between Freud’s initial theory of trauma in contrast to Ferenczi’s development of trauma theory in the direction of real interpersonal traumatization. The relationship of the trauma of human agency, or interpersonal trauma (Complex PTSD) will be contrasted with the descriptions of PTSD intended in the DSM.

Clara Mucci (PhD, 1999, Emory University, Atlanta, in English Literature and Psychoanalysis; Doctorate in Anglistics, Genoa University, Italy; Degree in Clinical Psychology, University of Chieti, and Specialization in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Milan, SIPP) was a full professor of English Literature and Shakespearean Drama until 2012. She is a member of SIPP (Società italiana psicoterapia psicoanalitica), IARPP, APA-Division39 (Psychoanalysis), and a Psychoanalyst in private practice in Milan, Italy with training functions for SIPeP-SF (Società italiana psicoanalisi e psicoterapia-Sandor Ferenczi).

She is the author of various monographs on Shakespeare and psychoanalytic theory. Within the psychoanalytic field, her major publications in English are Beyond Individual and Collective Trauma (Karnac, 2013, reprinted Routledge, 2017), Borderline Bodies: Affect Regulation Therapy for Personality Disorders (Norton, 2018), and, forthcoming, Resilience and Survival. Understanding and Healing Intergenerational Trauma. London, Confer, 2022. She is the co-editor, with G. Craparo, of Unrepressed Unconscious, Implicit Memory and Clinical Work (Karnac, 2017).

She was Visiting Scholar at the Comparative Literature and Society Program at Columbia University, New York, Fellow for six months of the Personality Disorders Institute at the Presbyterian Hospital, White Plains and New York, under the guidance of Dr. Otto Kernberg, and Visiting Scholar at the New School, Department of Psychology. She obtained certification for the Adult Attachment Interview (trainers Jukobvitz and Dazzi; University of California at Berkeley) and for Reflective Functioning (training with Howard Steele, New School). She lectures extensively in Europe and in the US and is a teacher and supervisor in several training schools of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy in Italy, England (Confer), and the US (NIP).

Learning Objectives

Upon completion, attendees will be able to:

1. trace the historical and theoretical differences in psychoanalytic trauma theory as they relate to the theories of Freud and Ferenczi;
2.  understand and discuss the developmental and structural differences between repression and dissociation and their different connections to interpersonal trauma;
3.  see the differences in the treatment of non-intentional traumas, such as natural catastrophes, and trauma stemming from interpersonal violence and abuse—only trauma of human agency causes dissociation.

A zoom link will be sent to registrants 1-2 days prior to the event.

For further information or questions please send an email to:

           Russell Merritt, LCSW: [email protected]

           If you do not receive a timely email response, telephone

           Nobuko Meaders, LCSW: 212-228-6988

This program is approved for 3 CE Credit Hours.

MPG Consulting is an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Social Workers (#0119) and for Licensed Psychoanalysts (3P-0034). MPG Consulting, LCSW, PLLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health.