# The severed self: Psychoanalytic themes in Severance - URL: https://alisanburak.com/en/wcp-2026-posterler/ev0133 - Language: en - Last updated: not specified - Page title: The severed self: Psychoanalytic themes in Severance | WCP 2026 Summary > By bringing psychoanalytic concepts such as repression, splitting, dissociation, and reintegration of the self to life through concrete technological metaphors… This page was translated automatically from Turkish. [Read the original](https://alisanburak.com/wcp-2026-posterler/ev0133) This page is an AI-assisted Turkish summary of the study presented at the 26th World Congress of Psychiatry. The study belongs to the presenting authors; please refer to the original source when citing it. EV0133 E-PosterPsychotherapyReview # The severed self: Psychoanalytic themes in Severance PSYCHOLOGICAL THEMES IN THE TV SERIES SEVERANCE Presenter: Sarah Cheema Country: United States of America Institution: Baylor College of Medicine, Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences By bringing psychoanalytic concepts such as repression, splitting, dissociation, and reintegration of the self to life through concrete technological metaphors, Severance can be used to explain these concepts to both students and patients. The aim is to analyze the psychoanalytic themes in Severance and discuss their implications for psychotherapy and education. The method consists of a conceptual examination of the series through four themes and a synthesis of implications for psychotherapy based on the trauma literature; it involves no quantitative data or sample. The first theme describes the severance procedure depicted in the series as an embodiment of the splitting of consciousness and the self. For the character Mark, it represents a conscious decision to repress the trauma following his wife's sudden death. Its effect on memory produces a state resembling amnesia or fugue, in which autobiographical memory is lost, while the elevator journey represents an actual discontinuity in the experience of self, as seen in identity diffusion. Despite the complete separation of good and bad, the unexplained heaviness carried by Mark's “innie” suggests that affect and sensations are transmitted even during extreme repression or dissociation. The second theme examines the true self versus the false self through the contrast between Helly and Helena, proposing that the two share traits such as ambition and fearlessness, and that their divergence emerges in the process of adapting to expected roles. The third theme illustrates access to the unconscious through paintings and sculpting accompanied by scent, emphasizing that art can serve as a gateway to the unconscious and that severe splitting can give rise to psychosis-like hallucinatory experiences. In the fourth theme, the portrayal of reintegration as a painful process involving headaches, confusion, disorientation, and hallucinations is likened to the profound pain caused by the sudden emergence of unconscious material into consciousness and to ambivalence toward integration. Implications for psychotherapy include integration's capacity to foster a sense of wholeness; the role of constructing a coherent narrative in attenuating emotional responses to fragmented images, memories, thoughts, and feelings and countering the isolating experience of trauma; the therapist's support for tolerating uncertainty; the capacity of taking ownership of one's behavior, even in dissociative states, to dispel feelings of helplessness and dependence; and the usefulness of grounding as a tool for preventing dissociation. In conclusion, the series may be used to communicate these concepts in an accessible way and may be clinically useful in explaining psychosomatic symptoms as expressions of psychological pain and in treating individuals who have experienced trauma and use defenses based on repression or dissociation. [View the original poster](https://cslide.ctimeetingtech.com/wcp26/attendee/eposter/file/2148) How to cite this study APA 7: Cheema, S. (2026, September 23-26). Psychological themes in the tv series severance [E-poster]. 26th WPA World Congress of Psychiatry (WCP 2026), Stockholm, Sweden. https://cslide.ctimeetingtech.com/wcp26/attendee/eposter/file/2148 Vancouver: Cheema S. Psychological themes in the tv series severance [e-poster]. 26th WPA World Congress of Psychiatry (WCP 2026); 2026 Sep 23-26; Stockholm, Sweden. Available from: https://cslide.ctimeetingtech.com/wcp26/attendee/eposter/file/2148 Author names and title formatting were generated automatically from the congress system; please check them against the original poster before use. ## On the same topic - [Bağımlılığa veda mektubu: madde kullanım bozukluğu tedavisinde eksik parça](https://alisanburak.com/en/wcp-2026-posterler/ev0051) - [Hemşirelik stajyerlerinde katarsis programının algılanan stres üzerindeki etkisi: girişimsel bir çalışma](https://alisanburak.com/en/wcp-2026-posterler/ev0112) - [Sınav kaygısı odaklı bilişsel davranışçı terapi el kitabının lise kız öğrencilerinde incelenmesi](https://alisanburak.com/en/wcp-2026-posterler/ev0116) - [Sosyal anksiyete bozukluğunda BDT sonucunun yordayıcıları olarak öngörü hatası ve beklentiler](https://alisanburak.com/en/wcp-2026-posterler/ev0117) - [Kabul ve kararlılık terapisinin öğrencilerin algılanan stresi ve sınav kaygısı üzerindeki etkisi](https://alisanburak.com/en/wcp-2026-posterler/ev0118) [All WCP 2026 summaries](https://alisanburak.com/en/wcp-2026-posterler) --- Kaynak / Source: https://alisanburak.com/en/wcp-2026-posterler/ev0133 İletişim / Contact: Bağdat Caddesi, Veli Güneysu Apt. No:453 K:4 D:9, Suadiye / Kadıköy, İstanbul · +90 532 642 95 25 · info@alisanburak.com · https://alisanburak.com/bagdat-caddesi-psikoterapi-iletisim