Donald Kalsched explores the interior world of dream & fantasy images encountered in therapy with people who have suffered unbearable life experiences He shows how in an ironical twist of psychical life the very images which are generated to defend the self can become malevolent & destructive resulting in further trauma for the person Why & how this happens are the questions the book sets out to answer Drawing on detailed clinical material the author gives special attention to the problems of addiction & psychosomatic disorder as well as the broad topic of dissociation & its treatment By focusing on the archaic & primitive defenses of the self he connects Jungian theory & practice with contemporary object relations theory & dissociation theory At the same time he shows how a Jungian understanding of the universal images of myth & folklore can illuminate treatment of the traumatised patient Trauma is about the rupture of those developmental transitions that make life worth living Donald Kalsched sees this as a spiritual problem as well as a psychological one & in The Inner World of Trauma he provides a compelling insight into how an inner self-care system tries to save the personal spirit