Glossary: Abreaction

A therapeutic method of releasing the pain of a traumatic event by re-experiencing, and thereby defusing, the emotions associated with it. Jung himself gave up abreaction when developing his theory of the cause and treatment of neuroses.

I soon discovered that, though traumata of clearly aetiological significance were occasionally present, the majority of them appeared very improbable. Many traumata were so unimportant, even so normal, that they could be regarded at most as a pretext for the neurosis. But what especially aroused my criticism was the fact that not a few traumata were simply inventions of fantasy and had never happened at all… I could no longer imagine that repeated experiences of a fantastically exaggerated or entirely fictitious trauma had a different therapeutic value from a suggestion procedure.

- Jung, “Some Crucial Points in Psychoanalysis,” CW 4, par. 582

The belief, the self-confidence, perhaps also the devotion with which the analyst does his work, are far more important to the patient (imponderabilia though they may be), than the rehearsing of old traumata.

- Jung, “Some Crucial Points in Psychoanalysis,” CW 4, par. 584