Fractures from our Childhood

Paper Summary:

This paper covers what childhood drama can do to a person, and how they can recover from it in adulthood. The process can be quite intense and may take many years. John Firman's book "The Primal Wound" is the main source for this paper. Also weaved in are the theories of Robert Assagioli's psychosynthesis, Hans Kohut's crystallization points, Kristina Grof's womb work, Piero Ferruci's sub-personalities, and Carl Jung's archetypes.

From the Paper:

"In our early formative years we are all small, tiny pawns that can be moved from space to space, ignored, or resented for many various reasons. Whatever those reasons may be, we can be left with a deep fissure within our self, our soul. John Firman calls this fissure "the primal wound." Firman wrote the book The Primal Wound in 1997. Firman attempts to formulate a comprehensive outlook on childhood wounding by utilizing the work of Roberto Assagioli's psychosynthesis. Psychosynthesis offers a broad outline of the human being that includes the suffering of early wounding and trauma. Psychosynthesis also focuses on the healing of primal wounding and the healthy development of the whole human being. Firman believes that, "the primal wound is a result of a violation we all suffer in various ways. In this violation we are treated not as individual, unique human beings, but as objects." (Firman, 1997). Firman deems that the beginnings of the initial wounding may not be traceable to any certain one event. "The most apparent effect will be set in the relationship between the child and his/her parent or caregiver." (Firman, 1997). This will form a deep recessive wound that will envelope the child as he/she grows up. This type of wounding is in comparison to that of Heinz Kohut's "crystallization points" in which trauma is inflicted to the child by ongoing internal injury put forward by the parent of caregiver. (Kohut, 1977)."

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