Traumatic neurosis is the ego’s flight from a psychic, not an external, threat

Evidence

The patient takes refuge in neurosis not in order to avoid the war being waged at the front but rather the war raging within himself … Freud could not be clearer: “It would be equally true to say that the old ego is protecting itself from a mortal danger by taking flight into a traumatic neurosis or to say that it is defending itself against the new ego which it sees as threatening its life.” — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded, 2396

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies Freud’s counterintuitive definition of traumatic neurosis as defense against internal rather than external threat.
• XREF: connects to: Cerebral trauma victims need recognition that bypasses psychic translation — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded: From Neurosis to Brain…, 351; Trauma loses its external character once folded into psychic meaning-making — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded: From Neurosis to Brain…, 850; Cerebral trauma’s identity metamorphosis must not reduce to any Freudian libidinal cause. — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded: From Neurosis to Brain…, 1737 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Pure traumatic neurosis involves ego withdrawal without any sexual-drive conflict. #expands (0.88) — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded, 2335