Correspondence: Pedro J. Boschan, Araoz 2831 9° C, Buenos Aires 1425, Argentina; E-mail: pedroboschan@yahoo.com

¹M.D. is Director of the Department of Psychoanalysis of the University Instititue of Mental Health of the Asociación Psicoanalítica de Buenos Aires; Training and Supervising Analyst and Professor of Mental Health of the Medical School of the University of Buenos Aires.

Abstract

In this paper, I follow the evolution of the concept of trauma within psychoanalytic theory, and some of the effects of this evolution. Starting out from the point where Freud gives up the theory of trauma as the cause of neurosis in 1897, and the alleged reasons for such a change, I analyze the theoretical and clinical consequences of this change within psychoanalysis. I proceed to develop Ferenczi's ideas on trauma, their relevance to present-day psychoanalytic theorizing and practice, as well as for the understanding of the psychic processes in children, tracing the development of some of these ideas in contemporary psychoanalytic thinking.