Herman embodies all the characteristics of the different types of people Homey

describes: the detachment and longing for freedom of resigned hermits, the morbid

dependency of self-effacing love-addicts, and the arrogant hostility and resistance of

subdued rebels. These incoherent and highly compartmentalized behavior patterns reflect

his fragmented self-narrative. Herman's highly convoluted interpersonal relationships

mirror his conflicting inner needs to move away from, toward, and against people.

 A careful study of the dynamic of survivors' interpersonal relationships is integral

for any fair assessment of the impact of trauma, for it is in this area that their unique self-

experiences and their emotional processing of trauma are played out. And nothing

illustrates the severity of Herman's traumatic wounding and the subsequent fracturing of

his psyche more than his simultaneous involvement with Yadwiga and Masha. The object

choices Herman makes clearly reflect the continuing dominant mode of his life, evasion

and detachment, which used to determine his coping mechanism on both the behavioral

and emotional levels. As he denied the responsibilities involved in marriage and

parenthood and lived the life of a bachelor before the war, he now chooses as his partner

Yadwiga, a person who helps him evade the thorny emotional issues of guilt, shame, and

remorse his survival entails. An interesting irony is that, although Herman's object

choices stem from his primary need to forget his trauma and the past, all the women he is

romantically involved with represent different parts of his past. With all his family

members, whom he used to ill-treat, now murdered, Herman, an escapist, cannot or

would not face the loss. Thus, by moving away from the world and creating air-tight,

claustrophobic worlds with his women, he tries to bracket the traumatic memories of his

family and wants to stay oblivious to the hard-to-forget period of his life that brings a