This thesis explores the ways in which a number of individuals survived their experiences of severe and perpetrated trauma. I theorise the participant’s survival adaptations in terms of hope which I positioned as being an active relational process. A case study method was used to collect data from intersubjective-psychoanalytically informed therapy sessions, from three participants who each received 12, 60 minute therapy sessions. I utilised a hermeneutic ontology from the work of Gadamer, who contended that the development of understanding and meanings results from an active intersubjective process. This ontology and design enabled the research to capture and interpret aspects of the dynamic development of personal meanings about the experiences of surviving traumas. Central to my notions of hope is the concept of intersubjectivity which is based upon the work of Winnicott, Fairbairn, Ferenczi, Meares, Stern and Bromberg. Using their ideas about relatedness and identification I argue that survivors expressed hopeful intentions and actions through their conscious and unconscious adaptive strategies. I explore the peritraumatic hopeful adaptations the survivors made such as identifying with the aggressor, the splitting of self, and the overt valuing of relatedness. I further argue that hopeful intentions can be seen in such actions as the survivor remembering their trauma rather than re-enacting it, in their efforts in narrating their trauma histories despite their fears, shame and difficulties in finding a listener. The thesis concludes by exploring some of the ramifications for society of hope, trauma and witnessing: foremost being the need to recognise the vulnerable in our communities and the difficulties we face in meeting the challenges of knowing their stories. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/189448 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Cameron, Ian R., University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, School of Psychology |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
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