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Dyadic Traumatic Reenactment: An Integration of Psychoanalytic Approaches to Working with Negative Interaction Cycles in Couple Therapy with Childhood Sexual Abuse Survivors

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Abstract

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) survivors often face difficulties in their intimate relationships and struggle to engage in the process of couple therapy. Recent research has demonstrated that the negative interaction cycles of CSA survivors are more complex and entrenched than those of couples who do not present with a history of trauma (MacIntosh in J Couple Fam Psychoanal 3(2):188–207, 2013). This paper integrates the psychoanalytic concepts of repetition and enactment into the concept of the negative interaction cycle as articulated by Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), to provide an expanded understanding of these deeply entrenched dynamics in which the traumas of the past are embedded. The complex repetitions of early traumas in the negative interaction cycle of the couple are referred to as Dyadic Traumatic Reenactments (DTR). Two contrasting case studies are used to illustrate these concepts.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. McGill University, School of Social Work, 3506 University room 300, Montreal, QC, H3A 2A7, Canada

    Heather B. MacIntosh

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  1. Heather B. MacIntosh
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Correspondence to Heather B. MacIntosh.

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Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the McGill University. Research Ethics Board approval was sought for the reanalysis of the EFT and childhood sexual abuse dataset as well as for the current research project focusing on developing a psychoanalytically informed couple therapy for complex trauma.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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MacIntosh, H.B. Dyadic Traumatic Reenactment: An Integration of Psychoanalytic Approaches to Working with Negative Interaction Cycles in Couple Therapy with Childhood Sexual Abuse Survivors. Clin Soc Work J 45, 344–353 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-016-0607-0

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