PMID: 3744956Jul 1, 1986Paper

Transference and post-traumatic stress: combat veterans' transference to the Veterans Administration Medical Center

The Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis
E R Parson

Abstract

In this paper I have discussed two types of transference manifestations to an institution; namely, the "VA Medical Center transference syndrome" (VATS) and the "VA medical center split transference syndrome" (VAST). Transference to an institution was identified as an important issue deserving the attention of psychotherapists and psychoanalysts. Two case studies illustrated the dynamics of these two transference phenomena. Moreover, as a consequence of exposure to traumatic war experiences in Vietnam, these two illustrative cases portrayed a strong tendency to splitting dynamics and fragmenting ego operations inherent in what has been referred to here as "post-traumatic borderline personality disorder" (p-TBPD). In the VATS case, the patient struggled with intense feelings of dissociated and repressed guilt over the five men killed and two severely wounded in Vietnam for which he believed himself to be responsible. Initially, the patient had denied he felt responsible and guilty over this tragic event; however, later as trust developed and intense paranoid defenses were attenuated, these painful memories were expressed in vivid detail. His affective attachment or transference to the VA Medical Center was an "instrumental transf...Continue Reading

References

Apr 1, 1979·The Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis·J O Brende, D B Rinsley
Jul 1, 1967·The Psychiatric Quarterly·S L Safirstein

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Citations

Mar 1, 1996·Psychosomatic Medicine·A Y ShalevS Eth
Dec 17, 2014·Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association·Thomas E Allen

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