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This wide-ranging, scholarly book represents the coming of age of a contemporary European perspective on Janet's theory of dissociation and its wedding to the rich tradition of previous work emanating from North America. In it three leading researchers and clinicians seek to share what they have gained from long experience of treating chronically traumatized individuals. In order to formulate their theory of the structural dissociation of the personality and its treatment they draw on a wide theoretical base. Their work is of particular interest to Jungians for, with Jung, they regard Janet as a seminal thinker whose ideas are the bedrock of their treatment of trauma related disorders. While perhaps their contribution may be the production of useful working hypotheses concerning dissociation and its treatment, yet to be tested fully, rather than providing definitive answers (p. 354), nevertheless they offer a systematic and organized way to think about the treatment of severely traumatized patients.
The authors note that while relatively short term approaches such CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) and EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) have been recommended for single incident traumatization and post-traumatic stress disorder ‘there is no research showing that these approaches represent adequate treatment for survivors of chronic traumatization if they are applied outside a phase-oriented treatment … patients with cumulative traumatization typically require more complicated and long-term treatments’ (p. ix). These authors, although not analytic, argue that deep-seated trauma requires sustained treatment in depth over time to effect change, thus supporting the continuing relevance of analysis in a world where short-term work is in danger of becoming the standard recommended treatment. Over time their aim in therapy is, through the use of phase-oriented treatment, to raise the ‘integrative capacity’ or ‘mental level’ of the patient. They see the att