9-11 exposed so many things, including the lack within psychoanalysis and the mental health professions in general of an adequate theory - and therapy - for dealing with adults traumatized by such events. This book attempts to correct that situation; and although it is about any traumatic event that may befall an adult - rape, the loss of a child, any brutal physical and psychological assault - the best way to focus its contributions and limitations is to think of it as a response to 9-11. (In political terms, one could argue that as a society we remain traumatized by that event, with the Bush Administration constituting an attempt to deny the trauma through a massive projection of aggression. But Bush-bashing is a nice way to avoid a deeper problem.) Before a trauma can be resolved it must be constituted. In terms of that requirement, as we'll see, psychoanalysis