Together we stand in the bottomless pit – When trauma hits the therapeutic dyad

During my psychiatric training I viewed trauma as a cul-de-sac, exclusively engaged with suffering. Trauma is an emotional breakdown suffered in the aftermath of a terrible event that places our fragile existence in a nightmarish glare and amplifies the fact that I am in the hands of forces I cannot control. In this paper I describe a case study of a woman who is diagnosed with schizophrenia and our joint venture in the face of a traumatic event which took place in our ward. I will try to shed some light on the links between trauma, dissociation, psychosis and psychotherapy.