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This paper deals with two related themes. The first concerns the nature of trauma and the clinical and theoretical problems involved when a traumatic event arises concomitantly with psychoanalytic treatment. In general it may be stated that a catastrophic present-day event will prove to be traumatic (that is, subsequently giving rise to psychic reorganization of a symptomatic kind) only to the extent to which it reactivates earlier psychic trauma. A more specific theme concerns the relation of trauma to creative activity. In an earlier work (Meyers, 1988) I had proposed that creative work in any field requires the integration of the universal bisexual wishes of childhood and that failure to identify with the potential fertility of both parents due to impediments in this integration is a frequent cause of serious intellectual and creative inhibition. I shall here explore the unconscious significance of bodily trauma arising in the analytic situation and its subsequent regressive effects on creative activity.
To illustrate these themes, I have chosen a vignette of three consecutive sessions from the analysis1 of a woman who initially sought analytic help because of a severe writing block as well as a conflictual relationship with her lesbian lover, Frederika.