Editorial

We have had such a good response to our invitation for submissions relating to trauma that the theme will continue beyond this special issue, into the spring issue. We would like to foster debate and so would welcome short pieces (4000 words) in response to the papers here.

In this issue, we have a diverse collection of papers approaching the topic of trauma from very different angles. The first paper, a single case study by Fiorenzo Ranieri, tracks the ways in which a pre-teen with a history of complex trauma uses the mind of her therapist to scaffold her rediscovery of the world from a place of safety following her adoption. Like a much younger child, she wants to notice and name the physical world, particularly places of importance to her but also the most simple items: ‘An “our” apple must be less distressing than “her” apple, linked to her memories. “Our” apple is less persecutory because it is thought together in a context, that of psychotherapy, which is sufficiently welcoming and non-conflictual … for her it is important that I explore things emotionally, in order to understand them as a form of personal experience. Once the objects are understood in this sense, through me Sarah too will be able to re -appropriate them without feeling them hard and stinging, but soft enough to be integrated.’ Ranieri shows us how this process went on to encompass the human objects of her past and present and, in time, allowed the construction of a safer internal world. He notes that by the end of treatment, the girl was able to begin her somewhat delayed adolescent development. She was now psychologically safe enough to begin taking the healthy risks that development demands.

For Graham Music, this capacity to reach out or move towards - towards the future, or towards others, with all the risk and lust for life that requires - is not just the reward of recovering from trauma, but an essential part of the healing process. Music is also clear that anger is a part of healing. In