The child as "therapy" of the post-traumatic manic defence

With this contribution of mine I wish to bring an articulated criticism to the scant attention paid to the several processes of the so called function of parentality and, at the same time, to consider these processes as unconscious collusive aspects that are often fundamental not only for the phenomenology of the relationship between partners, but also for a precise relation between the symptomatology of the children and the aspects of collusive pathology organized by the couple. This statement implies the whole complex field or the choice of the partner. This collusive mutuality emerges in a variety of forms. For example, mutual motivation of deprived, traumatized, shocked or deeply depressed individuals, to choose similar partners in order to perpetuate their mood without investing or being invested affectively by the other: "How can I speak of my own grief knowing the immensity of yours!". In this connection, Winnicott pointed out the "False Restitution" of the children towards the parents. This false restitution and reparation espressi t self through the identification of the child with the part of the parents that did not went through the dissociation of manic defence of theirs fails, the painful core, never worked through, the traumatic interruption of both their selves, that senses like a non turning point. There is in the child a sort of omnipotent attempt to reestablish continuity.

Andreas Giannakoulas, Il bambino come "terapia" della difesa maniacale post-traumatica genitoriale in "INTERAZIONI" 1/2022, pp 13-25, DOI: 10.3280/INT2022-001003