In this article, I trace the evolution and unfolding meanings and use of Ferenczi's model of trauma as it appears in his work on sexual abuse, on war trauma, and on early neglect. Some are works of quite long gestation and some written and published in the context of immediate circumstances, for instance, his paper on war neurosis. Ferenczi's work is seen as an influence on the psychoanalytic study of somatic states, on early gaps in psychic structure and in early and adult trauma.