The primal wound is the result of a violation we all suffer in various ways, beginning in early childhood and continuing throughout life. Because we are treated not as individual, unique human beings but as objects, our intrinsic, authentic sense of self is annihilated. This primal wounding breaks the fundamental relationships that form the fabric of human existence: the relationship to oneself, to other people, to the natural world, and to a sense of transpersonal meaning symbolized in concepts such as the Divine, the Ground of Being, and Ultimate Reality. In this book, ITP adjunct faculty members Firman and Gila apply object relations theory, self-psychology, transpersonal psychology, and psychosynthesis to the issues of psychological wounding, healing, and growth and show how this wounding can be redeemed through therapy and through changing one's way of living.

"Firman and Gila integrate important material from diverse schools of psychology and then expand it with their personal touch. The Primal Wound presents a scholarly -- yet understandable to the educated lay person -- description of some of the important dynamics of psychological wounding from a broad perspective, while also going deep into the soul and even exploring our relationship to God. There is little available on this topic and in the area of trauma psychology". -- Charles Whitfield, M.D., author of Memory and Abuse: Remembering and Healing the Wounds of Trauma