Freud reduces external trauma to a trigger of preexisting internal conflict

Evidence

However, in the same manner that Freud is led, very early on, to diminish the importance of “accidental factors” in the constitution of the neuroses, he just as rapidly minimizes the role of trauma itself even within the genesis of what he calls “traumatic” neuroses. Trauma is traumatic only to the extent that it triggers an internal conflict that exists before it. The enemy against which the soldier defends himself is always “an internal enemy.” — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded, 1653

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sets up the core of Malabou’s critique: for Freud the traumatic event is never truly external, it merely awakens a conflict that predates it — the ‘internal enemy’ doctrine she will reject.
• XREF: Connects to Malabou’s central thesis that brain damage breaks this model — external destruction without preexisting psychic economy. Also echoes the ‘protective shield’/Reizschutz discussion she will contest. — connects to: Real danger precedes and grounds instinctual danger for Freud — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded: From Neurosis to Brain…, 2662; Psychoanalysis begins with events usually dismissed as accidental — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded: From Neurosis to Brain…, 1766; Trauma loses its external character once folded into psychic meaning-making — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded: From Neurosis to Brain…, 850 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Trauma loses its external character once folded into psychic meaning-making #expands (0.90) — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded, 850
• Real danger precedes and grounds instinctual danger for Freud #contradicts (0.88) — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded, 2662
• Psychoanalysis begins with events usually dismissed as accidental #exemplifies (0.72) — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded, 1766