Psychodynamic Movement from Trauma to Mythos

Abstract

This paper tells of a journey through the trauma system, made while working towards my doctorate The Psychodynamic Body: A Mythos of Psychotherapy. I found that each time a connection was made between traumatic material and imagery, what was silent, unseen and unknowable became enlivened. Each connection a psychodynamic movement. I discovered that when enough images were gathered a mythos emerged, a journey through trauma, a poesis of the trauma system. This changed its nature. The trauma system became something alive. Psychodynamic movement imbued each tiny corpuscle of experience. The painting on the cover of this book, Bird from the Sea, depicts this. The bird that emerges from the dark heaving bloody sea is an expression of psychodynamic movement from within the trauma system, a movement integral to the therapeutic process.