Identification and trauma: An integrative-developmental approach

The present paper addresses the effects of sexual abuse trauma on the developmental process of identification. Childhood victims of family violence often experience profound character changes as adults. One primary adaptation utilized by survivors of sexual abuse trauma is termed identification with the aggressor.Both pathological and adaptive manifestations of this operation exist in children and adults. Clinical case material is presented which clarifies the impact of trauma on the process of identification in children and adults. Individual, group, and family dynamics all provide important contextual information for the processing of sexual abuse trauma in psychotherapy. Clients may co-create, with their therapist, interactions which resemble their original traumatizations. During these therapeutic re-creations, clients exhibit behavior which represents an identification with their offender, hence expressing unresolved aggression toward the therapist. The effective psychotherapist is able to tolerate her own aggression, and remain empathically connected to her client.