Discussion of David Levit’s “Somatic Experiencing”

The following is a discussion of David Levitt’s paper “Somatic Experiencing: Enhancing Psychoanalytic Holding for Trauma and Catastrophic Dissociation Contending with the Flood and Fog.” The discussion focuses on three major points: (1) the emphasis on psychophysiological hyperarousal and containment techniques in the treatment of traumatized adults has been a significant part of the relational trauma literature for at least thirty years. This author prefers to regard the significant contributions of Somatic Experiencing Techniques as evolutionary rather than revolutionary, building on much of the literature that has come before. (2) The notion that the self is not present during episodes of severe dissociation is challenged. This discussion asserts that during such episodes the patient’s “selves” fragment and a complex process of desymbolization occurs. However, some aspects of self are present to “take in” the non -verbal aspects of what the therapist has to offer. And finally (3) the relationship between patient and therapist is both a container in the Bionian sense, but also a trigger for the reenacted transference-countertransference paradigms that mark the treatment of traumatized patients. Although Levitt’s paper emphasizes the need for containment and holding, we cannot overlook the ongoing and ever-shifting presence of these self-other configurations as they saturate our therapeutic process. Here the therapist is both the container that makes treatment possible, but also the magnet that draws out these significant re-enactments.