Traumatic neurosis is discussed and illustrated by a clinical case. Observing that psychic troubles found nowadays keep similarities with those treated by Freud and other psychoanalysts in the first half of the XX century, the ideas of those pioneers are briefly presented. The discussion of the clinical case shows that the superego is an important conceptual instrument to privilege a dynamic approach to traumatic neurosis. The exacerbation of superego´s cruelty is responsible for some aspects of the traumatic neurosis similar to melancholy, as well as to paranoid ideas that may result from the projection of superego dictates.
trauma; traumatic neurosis; anxiety; superego; clinic