Retroactive Trauma and the Phenomenology of Retroactivity

Abstract

The primary aim of this paper is to compare the phenomenological analysis of retroactivity with Freud’s notion of retroactive trauma. This comparative study is complemented by the question of whether contemporary research on body-memory contributes to the phenomenological analyses of the temporal structure of retroactive trauma. In light of recent research on passive synthesis and body-memory, the paper introduces the idea of implicit-bodily retroactive awakening, which can be understood as an immanent connection between the past and the present. This pre-intentional accomplishment describes, from a phenomenological point of view, the intrusion of the uninterpreted memory traces of retroactive trauma into the present.