EDITH KURZWEIL
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went on, takes in external events and internal reality in broad strokes;
Makari leads us on a guided tour of Freud's discoveries to show that this
shift was not abrupt, but a wish that he had known early on what he found
out later. She noted that
Veifiihrung
involves a seducer and someone who
responds; and that Freud conceptualized the seduction by the mother very
differently in 1931 than in 1897. But whether or not analysts discard this
hypothesis, it raises important questions. And she suggested that we inquire
why seduction currently is of interest, how traumatic it is, and how fre–
quent. These historical issues, however, were dropped throughout the rest
of the conference as both panelists and audience became absorbed by ever
more intricate clinical questions.
Arnold Cooper (Columbia University Center) introduced the second
panel by pointing out that trauma was the central theme of the conference
and, gently, asked the partici pants to explain and clarify their thinking rather
than their ideologies. Scott Dowling, the editor of
The Psychoanalytic Study
of the Child,
considered psychological trauma to be the "regulatory response
of a functional biological system, the mind, to impingements upon its
integrity." He elaborated on the pitfalls of equating repressed memories
with unconscious fantasy-which resulted from the helplessness and hope–
lessness whose meaning a child has felt as overwhelming. One of his
examples was of a nine year old boy whose father was an abusive alcoholic.
Mter a rousing argument with his wife he had left the house and upon his
return at three a.m. had passed out. When the boy saw his father on the
floor he thought that his wish to have him die had come true. His trauma
resulted from the fact that his wish appeared to have been granted. Dowling
then generalized that the power of the traumatic event is provided by a pre–
viously determined unconscious meaning that is being reactivated and felt
as dangerous by the patient. He then detailed how he goes about building
the trust that allows this unconcious meaning to surface. At that point, I
thought of the
film,
Good Will Hunting,
which critics have praised for its act–
ing, some audiences have faulted for its foul language and violence, but
whose "maverick shrink" I have not seen referred to as a "psychoanalyst."
Marylou Lionells of the William Alanson White Institute spoke to the
issues that have "separated classical analysts from the Interpersonal-rela–
tional schools." Like Horney, who over forty-five years ago stalked out of
the New York Psychoanalytic Association (NYPA) , she explained that
real
life events are always important,
and that their meanings
are always
defined
relationally. She made her point by means of a patient's history, and cited
colleagues of
her
theoretical orientation. She presented her patient, Al's,
trauma by moving from his present situation to his early experiences; by
interpreting her own responses to him; and by recounting how the quality
of their interaction changed over time. Lionells demonstrated that she
