Ebenezer Scrooge Recovers from Developmental Trauma Disorder with Jim Harris, PsyD

Instructional Level: Intermediate

Developmental trauma profoundly shapes psychic structure, altering the balance of id, ego, and superego, and leaving lasting imprints of toxic shame and trauma-driven flashbacks. This presentation examines how the biological responses of fight, flight, and freeze intersect with personality development and require modifications in traditional psychotherapeutic approaches. Participants will gain tools to recognize the origins of toxic shame, articulate the tripartite amalgam of feelings present in flashbacks, and connect trauma’s biological underpinnings to psychological outcomes. We will also confront the historical abandonment of trauma theory at the very founding of psychoanalysis—a decision that has left countless trauma survivors marginalized and underserved. Despite the prevalence of developmental trauma, formal education on the subject remains strikingly absent from undergraduate curricula, graduate training, and even psychoanalytic institutions. This program challenges that omission and calls for a renewed commitment to integrating trauma studies into psychoanalytic theory and practice.

REGISTER

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
State how the psychic structure of id, ego, and superego are typically affected by developmental trauma.

PRESENTER
Jim Harris, PsyD, is a clinical psychologist in private practice and Past President of the Dallas Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology. He has held longstanding clinical faculty appointments at UT Southwestern Medical School, Southern Methodist University, and the University of North Texas. Dr. Harris has published and presented on topics ranging from eating disorders and trauma theory to cultural and artistic analysis, including his work on Frida Kahlo and his recent presentation Ebenezer Scrooge Recovers from Complex PTSD. With a special focus on treating developmental trauma in adults, he is dedicated to advancing both clinical practice and academic training in this area, and advocates for the formal inclusion of developmental trauma as a recognized diagnosis in the DSM.

REFERENCES
Kernberg, Otto (Dec 2021). Extensions of Psychoanalytic Technique: The Mutual Influences of Standard Psychoanalysis and Transference-Focused Psychotherapy. Psychodynamic Psychiatry V49 Issue 4, Guilford Press Periodicals.

Shedler, Jonathan (2015). Where is the Evidence for Evidence-Based Therapy? The Journal of Therapies in Primary Care: 4, 47-59.

Benjamin J, Atlas G (2015). The ‘too muchness’ of excitement: Sexuality in light of excess, attachment and affect regulation. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis 96: 39-63.