Experiences of Trauma and Dissociation in France

Abstract In France, trauma was identified as a cause of mental illness as early as the middle of the nineteenth century. Physical, sexual, or emotional abuse are the most frequent events. Interpersonal trauma, such as assault, abuse, confinement, or war, lead much more often to severe traumatic responses. In the aftermath of trauma, several traumatic syndromes exist. I discriminated especially the dissociation and phobia traumatic syndromes, the reliving traumatic syndromes, and the narcissistic regression traumatic syndromes. For us, posttraumatic clinics do not fundamentally differ from country to country. French mainstream psychotherapy still remains psychoanalysis. Maybe, the most significant research contribution in France lay in creating, many decades ago now, the first medical Non-Governmental Organizations as a therapeutic answer to mass trauma.