The Deep Effects of Early Trauma on the Construction of the Sense of Self: an Introduction to Dissociation in Developmental Age

Abstract

The contribution of neuroscience and attachment theories allowed to arrive at a new conceptualization of infantile dissociation, observed today as a post-traumatic adaptation that has profound effects on the construction of the individual's sense of self, following experiences of early and cumulative traumatization within models of disorganized attachment. The theoretical model of Individual Psychology, which embraces a psychology of depth and of the self, offers a context in which these new conceptualizations can find numerous connections. Knowing how to identify the dynamics that this particular type of trauma produces on development, recognizing the dissociative phenomena that can arise in childhood and adolescence, appears particularly important in order to understand the complexity of children’s suffering and put these acquisitions at the service of their treatment