Trauma can shatter the mind, creating rifts in consciousness or fault lines in the psyche. Continuity within the self becomes fractured. This article explores links between trauma, dissociation, and enactment. When dissociation forms a primary response to trauma, the mind cuts off unbearable elements of experience from the subjective “I.” Later these disowned fragments may intrude in the present as transferential enactments. Internal fault lines often emerge as ruptures in relationships. Therapist and client must traverse these interpersonal fault lines to integrate unwanted parts of the self. The author presents two clinical vignettes to illustrate how the therapist's script can become entangled in mutual enactments. When enactments are resolved, bridges in the interpersonal realm increase continuity within the self as well as the capacity for intimacy. This article proposes that healing the fractured self requires an encounter with otherness, which expands Berne's (1961) thesis about the human hunger for recognition.
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