The Seba library treats Protection in 9 passages, across 8 authors (including Hillman, James, Herman, Judith Lewis, INC , ACA WSO).
Grant us protection, foreknowledge; cherish us… Here is the motif of protection again and a protection of a specific sort: invulnerability, foresight, guarantee that all shall be well, no matter what.
Hillman identifies the puer’s appeal for protection as a mother-bound demand for existential invulnerability that forecloses the genuine risk and spirit proper to individuation.
, Senex & Puer, 2015thesis
Assurances of safety and protection are of the greatest importance. The survivor who is often in terror of being left alone craves the simple presence of a sympathetic person.
Herman establishes the provision of protection as the primary clinical task in the immediate aftermath of trauma, prior to any deeper reconstructive work.
, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence—From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror, 1992thesis
protection of the vulnerable self by withdrawal… protection of the vulnerable self by withholding of difficult feelings… protection of the vulnerable self by pleasing others… protection of the vulnerable self through acts of aggression
The Adult Children literature catalogues fourteen defensive strategies as self-protective operations of the vulnerable self, revealing protection as a multi-modal, systemic response to chronic relational trauma.
, ADULT CHILDREN OF ALCOHOLICS DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILIES, 2012thesis
our natural instinct to seek out others for care, protection, and emotional connection is damaged. When people, especially those to whom we are attached, frighten or ignore us, we may learn to mistrust others and avoid depending upon their support
Ogden demonstrates that traumatic attachment severs the attachment system from its protective function, transforming the bid for protection into a source of dysregulation and danger.
, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Interventions for Trauma and, 2015thesis
The shaman or medicine man is mainly concerned with the fate of the individual soul, its preparation for death, its protection after death, and its protection against states of possession by ghosts and demons.
Von Franz locates the archaic root of psychotherapy in the shaman’s protective function against archetypal possession, identifying protection of the soul as the primordial clinical task.
, Psychotherapy, 1993supporting
persons of such unlimited power should need to be protected so carefully from the threat of danger; but that is not the only contradiction shown in the treatment of royal personages among savage peoples.
Freud exposes the paradox at the heart of archaic taboo: the most powerful figures require the most elaborate protection, betraying an underlying social ambivalence toward numinous power.
, Totem and Taboo, 1913supporting
Polarization, which is conflict between protectors, leaves the raw, hurting exiles in each person unattended. Since these parents don’t have the Self-leadership yet to become the primary caretakers of their own exiles, their protectors may recruit others for caretaking.
Schwartz shows that protective parts in IFS can escalate into polarized conflicts that paradoxically abandon the very vulnerable material they were recruited to shield.
, Internal Family Systems Therapy, 1995supporting
Better known is the magic protective power of the papyvos. It is of use against φαρμακα and φαντασματα, and is therefore hung up on the doors.
Rohde documents apotropaic botanical and magical devices in Greek ritual practice whose explicit function is to protect thresholds and persons against demonic and pharmakological harm.
, Psyche: The Cult of Souls and the Belief in Immortality among the Greeks, 1894aside
The rules against killing or eating the totem are not the only taboos… Any violation of the taboos that protect the totem are automatically punished by severe illness or death.
Freud notes that totemic taboos function as a protective system for the sacred animal, punishment for violation taking the form of automatic, quasi-magical retribution.
, Totem and Taboo, 1913aside