Traumaspuren, Körperengramme und das Schutzprinzip: Behandlungstechnische Überlegungen jenseits des Lustprinzips.

The protection principle describes the logic by which the mental processing is determined when, beyond the pleasure principle, the unconscious dynamic is no longer dominated by conflicts but by trauma. Trauma damages and disrupts symbolic structures and inscribes itself into the body itself. The recall of this damage is manifested in a permanent disorganization of the body itself and is accompanied by a threat of annihilation, which the subject seeks to avert by petrification and a systematic blocking of the perception of the body (encapsulated body engram). The mental activity tries to protect itself from encounters with the memory of the trauma. Various defensive strategies have been described, as far as suicidal tendencies. Both the memory and also the protection against the threat of annihilation are physically constituted and form the physical unconscious beyond the symbolic unconscious. Typical forms of protection are described. The therapeutic technique of the somatic narration is explained based on a case example. The bodily perception of the patient is actively included and explored. The traumatic solitude is now relieved by the specific presence of the analyst. A nondestructive encounter with the traumatic material reduces the necessity for protection. It is possible to return from the protection principle to the pleasure principle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]