Dialogues with Forgotten Voices: Relational Perspectives on Child Abuse Trauma and the Treatment of Severe Dissociative Disorders

545 Pages·2000·87.85 MB·English

by  Harvey L. Schwartz

DIALOGUES WITH
FORGOTTEN VOICES
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DIALOGUES WITH
FORGOTTEN VOICES
Relational Perspectives on
Child Abuse Trauma and
Treatment of Dissociative Disorders
HARVEY L. SCHWARTZ, P H .D
BASIC
BOOKS
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
Copyright © 2000 by Basic Books
Published by Basic Books,
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
Ail rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be repro
duced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quota
tions embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address Basic Books, 10 East
53rd Street, New York, NY 10022-5299.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Schwartz, Harvey L., 1955-
Dialogues with forgotten voices : relational perspectives on child abuse trauma and
treatment of dissociative disorders / Harvey L. Schwartz.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-465-09573-9
1. Adult child abuse victims—Rehabilitation. 2. Adult child abuse victims—Mental
health. 3. Sexual abuse victims—Mental health. 4. Dissociative disorders—Treatment.
I. Title.
RC569.5.C55 S395 2000
616.85'82239—dc2l
00-058557
000102 03/1098 7 6543 21
I gratefully dedicate this book to my patients and to my colleagues:
to my patients, who have courageously sought ivholeness and
healing against great odds, and who have, been
my most challenging and important teachers;
to my colleagues treating trauma and dissociation,
who have continued to find ways of reaching profoundly
violated human beings in a time of increasing
professional and cultural adversity.
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It is often said that in today's modern and postmodern world, the forces of dark
ness are upon us. But I think not; in the Dark and the Deep there are truths that
can always heal. It is not the forces of darkness hut of shallowness that every
where threaten the true, and the good, and the beautiful, and that ironically an
nounce themselves as deep and profound. It is an exuberant and fearless
shallowness that everywhere is the modern danger, the modern threat, and that
everywhere nonetheless calls to us as Savior. We might have tost the Light and
the Height; but more frightening, we have lost the Mystery and the Deep, the
Emptiness and the Abyss, and lost it in a world dedicated to surfaces and shad
ows, exteriors and shells, whose prophets lovingly exhort us to dive into the
shallow end of the pool liead first.
—Ken Wilber
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Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction xiii
PART I
THE LANDSCAPES OF DISSOCIATIVE SURVIVAL,
CHILD ABUSE TRAUMA, AND SOCIAL COMPLICITY
1 Necessary Illusions; The Multiple Dilemmas of
Dissociative Survival 3
2 Unfathomable Realities, Discredited Testimony:
Child Abuse, Victims, and Perpetrators 51
3 Child Abuse and Cultural Ambivalence:
Complicity, Incredulity, and Denial 99
PART LI
RESTORATION OF THE TRAUMATIZED, DISSOCIATIVE SELF
4 Major Trends in Relational Psychoanalytic Thought-
Implications for Treatment of Trauma and Dissociation 127
5 From Inclusion to Integration: Basic Concepts in
Psychotherapy with Severely Dissociative Trauma Survivors 165
6 From Domination to Recognition: lite Restoration of
Intersubjectivity and Paradoxical Awareness 207
7 The Destruction and Restoration of Fantasy and Aggression 247
8 The Destruction and Restoration of Attachment and
Critical Thinking 293
IX