Quote Originally Posted by Animal View Post
I agree. I don't regard it as "true", any more than I would regard Socionics as "true." I've found that it presents a useful lens through which to get a handle on some of the experiences within that don't make much sense with either modern science or ancient religion. For example, we don't have a much better explanation of a trauma victim's attraction to situations that recreate the traumatic experience than what Freud conjectured (repetition compulsion; "we repeat to complete"). But, in the end, it's just a blunt instrument for trying to get at things that are much a more complex interaction of many things. I like the precision of psychoanalytic language and I like that it takes a critical eye toward the larger society, and the way it can have negative effects on a human being. People are talking about such things now (like the influence of technology on young people, etc.), but not with as much depth as I'd like.
Well perhaps a more constructive approach would not be to ask "Why does the person recreate his traumatic experiences?", but to ask "Does the person want to recreate his traumatic experience, or not?". And given the basic premise that humans basically want to be happy and healthy, probably not. It could be that the thought-processes and the behavior of the person is compulsive, and he may not have much conscious control over it. So perhaps we can try to see and analyze how the person may no longer behave in such a compulsive pattern in the future. And that ultimately requires the ability to eventually control his own destiny.

I don't think there is much use in saying "I am this way", and just end it at that. You can describe a certain pattern of behavior, such as Borderline Personality Disorder. But I don't it's much use to just say that you're Borderline, but you can't really do anything about it. It only brings the power to be able to change it, if you understand the cause behind it. So if we could understand the cause behind "Why does the victim recreate his traumatic experience?", then that would be helpful. But I would think that it would require a different approach to get to the direct answer to that question, even if we initially asked the wrong question.