Philip M. Bromberg - The Shadow of the Tsunami: and the Growth of the Relational Mind

2011 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
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Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
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International Standard Book Number: 978-0-415-88694-9 (Hardcover)

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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Bromberg, Philip M., 1931
The shadow of the tsunami and the growth of the relational mind / Philip M. Bromberg ; with a foreword by Allan Schore.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-415-88694-9 (hbk. : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-203-83495-4 (e-book) 1. Psychoanalysis. 2. Dissociation (Psychology) 3. Psychotherapist and patient. I. Title.
RC509.B756 2011
616.8917dc222011002612

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This new book from Philip Bromberg is the third of a trilogy, following what have now become classics, Standing in the Spaces (1998a) and Awakening the Dreamer (2006a). These books have enhanced our understanding of trauma and illuminated its powerful interface with the mind/brain process of dissociation in shaping the relationship through which the deepest and most enduring healing and self-growth is achieved in treatment. In an even broader sense, Bromberg has enhanced our recognition that dissociation is intrinsic to the development of what is normal as well as pathological in being human. In the following pages the reader will note a significant expansion of Brombergs ideas from these earlier volumes. This takes the form of not only a further clarification of the concepts he developed over the body of his earlier writings, but an even more extensive elaboration of the ways he uses these in his clinical work. Indeed the book is chock-full of rich clinical vignettes, written in an experience-near style that has gained him a reputation as perhaps the most evocative clinical writer of our times. But in addition, Bromberg has dramatically progressed in integrating psychology and biology into relational mind/brain/body conceptualizations of treatment. The subtitle of the very last chapter of his 2006a book was Where psychoanalysis, cognitive science, and neuroscience overlap. There he began to incorporate contemporary neuroscience, including my own work, into the core of his clinical model. As you will soon see each and every chapter of this book contains relevant information from neuroscience.

The reader who is already familiar with not only Brombergs previous work but also with my own will note there is a remarkable overlap between Brombergs contributions to clinical psychoanalysis and mine in developmental neuropsychoanalysis, a deep resonance between his theoretical concepts and my own work in Regulation Theory. A common theme of both of our writings is the problem of early developmental trauma and dissociation and their enduring impact on the mind/brain/bodys capacity to interpersonally regulate affect, referred to in this book as the shadow of the tsunami. On the surface, it may appear that were exploring these problems from different perspectives, but at a deeper level were both interested in the science and the art of psychotherapy (which happens to be the title of my next book). This common focus on the centrality of trauma and affect, which are both intrinsically biological phenomena, allows for a convergence of our perspectives on development, psychopathogenesis, and treatment. But we share more than just an intellectual commonality of our theories. In my review of his last book (Schore, 2007) I admitted a personal bias to his clinical style of working with patients, since it is so similar to my own. Since that time, our ongoing rich dialogues in a series of annual Affect Regulation conferences in New York City has significantly increased the interpenetration of our ideas into each others work, and more importantly, has intensified a deep friendship.

This book is more than just a further elaboration of Brombergs groundbreaking work on trauma and dissociation. Here he expands and broadens his clinical model and defines what he sees as the relational mechanism of therapeutic action common to the treatment of all patients. In fact he argues that we are now experiencing a paradigm shift in psychotherapy: from the primacy of cognition to the primacy of affect, from the primacy of content to the primacy of process and context, and thereby a shift away from the concept of technique. In my writings and presentations I have described the same shift in paradigm (Schore, 2009d, 2011). My neuropsychoanalytic perspective views the shift from conscious cognition to unconscious affect, and asserts that the relational change mechanism embedded in the therapeutic alliance acts not through the therapists left brain explicitly delivering content interpretations to the patients right brain, but through right-brain to right-brain affect communication and regulation processes . This book is dedicated to what that shift looks and feels like clinically, from the experience-near perspective of a relational model of treatment that impacts both the conscious and especially unconscious mind/brain/bodies of both members of the therapeutic relationship. Although it uses the terminology of contemporary psychoanalysis, this volume will be appreciated by the broader audience of psychodynamic clinicians and indeed all psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and counselors practicing psychotherapy.

In his invitation to write this foreword Philip noted, The length is up to you. He said this knowing that I am anything but brief in my writings. And so this foreword will contain four sections: the first on development, the next two on psychopathogenesis, and the last on psychotherapy. Following the format of my review of his last book I will describe in some detail not only his but my own work in these areas, including points of direct connections between his clinical model and my work in interpersonal neurobiology. In the last section on psychotherapy I shall discuss in more detail the neurobiological correlates of two major themes of this book: unconscious relational communications, and the psychotherapeutic change mechanism of shrinking the shadow of the tsunami. In addition to acting as a commentary on Brombergs ideas, this foreword also serves as a readers guide of interpersonal neurobiology that can be accessed after reading Brombergs remarkably evocative clinical descriptions.