Trauma and Transference

Course Description

Catherine Liu's keynote draws on her new book, Traumatized: The New Politics of Public Suffering (Verso, 2026), which traces how “trauma” moved from nineteenth-century railway-accident medicine and wartime shell shock to the diagnosis of PTSD, and to a wider culture that, Liu argues, convinces people that their wounds define them. The talk is a criticism of many mainstream ideas about trauma, especially in the therapy world, and in it she addresses what she calls the suppression of any account of the unconscious in behavioral therapy and the psychopharmacological turn. Drawing on Freud, the talk also sets out how trauma responses, narcissism and transference relate to one another.

For clinicians, the course's stance is ultimately less about labeling people with a big word and more about becoming curious about suffering: what happened, how a client has responded, and what may be repeating in the relationship with the therapist. That stance happens to be in line with many of the philosophical ideas found in narrative therapy.

Instructor Information

Educational Goals

1. Develop a critical understanding of how mainstream ideas about trauma, in the wider culture and in the therapy world, shape the way clients come to name and understand their own suffering.
2. Strengthen clinicians' capacity to stay curious about a client's suffering, including its history, its meanings and what it repeats, rather than defining the client by a diagnostic label.

Measurable Learning Objectives

1. Participants will be able to describe three stages in the history of the trauma concept, from nineteenth-century railway-accident medicine through shell shock to PTSD, and one consequence of its widening for how clients' suffering is assessed.
2. Participants will be able to identify two features of what Liu calls the “trauma script” and one way it can shape how a client presents their suffering in therapy.
3. Participants will be able to explain how Freud's concept of the compulsion to repeat links a client's trauma responses to the transference with the therapist.
4. Participants will be able to describe one way that curiosity about a client's suffering differs from summing that suffering up in a single diagnostic word.

Outline with Main Points for Each Topic (including times)

1. 8:30–8:40 AM · A Short History of Trauma — Obj 1 — 10 minutes

   • From railway accidents and shell shock to PTSD (Liu, 2026; Freud, 1920/1922)
   • The widening of the trauma concept and what it means for assessment (Engelhard et al., 2026)

2. 8:40–8:55 AM · Trauma Culture and the Trauma Script — Obj 2 — 15 minutes

   • A critique of mainstream ideas about trauma, in the culture and the therapy world (Liu, 2023, 2026)
   • The trauma script, and how it can shape the way clients present their suffering

3. 8:55–9:10 AM · Trauma Responses, Narcissism and Transference — Obj 3 — 15 minutes

   • Narcissism and the compulsion to repeat (Freud, 1914/1957, 1920/1922)

4. 9:10–9:30 AM · Curiosity Before Labels, with Q&A — Obj 4 — 20 minutes

   • What a single word can leave out: curiosity about a client's suffering rather than a label
   • Questions and conversation with participants

Total instructional time: 10 + 15 + 15 + 20 = 60 minutes / 60 = 1.0 CE hours

Signing in and out

• Sign in at the door between 8:00 AM and 8:30 AM.
• Sign out and complete this session’s evaluation at the door when it ends at 9:30 AM.
• Sign-in, sign-out and the evaluation are not part of the 1.0 CE hours.

References

• Engelhard, I. M., Krypotos, A.-M., McNally, R. J., Mertens, G., & van Zuiden, M. (2026). Defining the concept of psychological trauma. Nature Reviews Psychology, 5(5), 327–337. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-026-00557-y
• Freud, S. (1922). Beyond the pleasure principle (C. J. M. Hubback, Trans.). International Psycho-Analytical Press. (Original work published 1920)
• Freud, S. (1957). On narcissism: An introduction. In J. Strachey (Ed. & Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 14, pp. 67–102). Hogarth Press. (Original work published 1914)
• Liu, C. (2023, February 16). The problem with trauma culture. Noema. https://www.noemamag.com/the-problem-with-trauma-culture
• Liu, C. (2026). Traumatized: The new politics of public suffering. Verso.