Disabling reenactment imagery after violent dying.

Reenactment imagery that remains fixating after violent dying is associated with diminished psychological resilience. The nonresilient teller struggles to maintain an integrative orientation within the recounting. Reestablishing the resilient capacities of pacification (mastery of terror through self-calming), partition (mastery of intrusive thoughts through self-differentiation), and perspective (mastery of self-determination through self-transcendence) is an important preparatory goal with intervention. Without these resilient capacities, premature exposure increases the risk that patients will experience a dysfunctional merger with the possessive reenactment representation. A preliminary model of resilient "offenses" to be reinforced in the traumatized subject as a first stage of intervention is presented.