The (Ab)use of Reliving Childhood Traumata

Most treatments of adult survivors of child abuse are based on the assumption that without memory, without an understanding or felt experience that the abuse is at the heart of the client's difficulties, the survivor is lost. This paper questions this assumption. The alleged therapeutic value of reliving is based on the denial of unbearable suffering, and on an abstract idea of mental health which has its roots in psychoanalytic theories for the treatment of non-abused clients. Reliving abusive experiences can lead to a repetition of the abuse and an exacerbation of the client's problems. Unbearable experiences demand `abnormal' defence or coping strategies, which are not necessarily undesirable or pathological.