Trauma and Reparation
PROF. ANGELA COTELLI PORRINO
COURSE AIMS
The aim of the course is to give students: a basic competence related to the
historical development of the concept of trauma and the conceptual,
methodological and applicative tools for clinical recognition and management of
trauma.
Each topic shown in the course contents will be illustrated with clinical examples
that are aimed at emphasizing and explaining the techniques of diagnosis and of
effective treatment.
COURSE CONTENT
1. The recognition and treatment of trauma from an historical and conceptual
perspective.
– The development of the diagnostic concept (examples and clinical cases).
– The influence of social movements on the development of recognition of
psychological trauma and of its psychopathological consequences.
– From hysteria to the definition of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
– Psychopathology and development of the treatment technique (examples and
clinical cases).
2. Classification of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
– The mechanisms and symptoms of PTSD: clinical applications.
– Resilience, vulnerability and progress of post-traumatic reactions: clinical
applications.
– Psychobiology of trauma: “the body holds the reckoning” (in cooperation with
Dr. Giovanni Tagliavini, psychiatrist).
– Difference between descriptive-nosological diagnoses and explanatoryinterpretative diagnoses of post-traumatic disorders: examples of a diagnostic
process and formulation of the case.
3. Trauma and dissociation (in cooperation with Dr. Giovanni Tagliavini,
psychiatrist).
– The use of memory and recall in a clinical case.
– Traces of dissociation in a clinical case.
– Reconstruction of the pre-traumatic personality in a clinical case.
4. From post-traumatic stress disorder to the complex trauma.
– Examples of psychotherapeutic treatment with a “difficult patient”: transfer and
countertransfer.
READING LIST
J. L. HERMAN, Guarire dal trauma, Edizioni Magi
B. CYRULNIK, Autobiografia di uno spaventapasseri, Raffaello Cortina Editore.
G. LIOTTI-B. FARINA, Sviluppi traumatici, Raffaello Cortina Editore.
NOTES
Further information can be found on the lecturer's webpage at
http://docenti.unicatt.it/web/searchByName.do?language=ENG or on the Faculty notice
board.