On the impossibility of recognising one’s own reflection in the mirror in severe forms of C-PTSD
Updated: 6 days ago
Theoretical and Conceptual Paper · Open Access
Kyd Shepherd
Clinical psychologist in private and institutional practice Paris, France
Corresponding author: Kyd Shepherd, psychologue-counsellor@tutamail.com
Perspectives on Complex Trauma, Volume 7, Issue 1 (2026)
Published: September 2026
Abstract
In the last five years I have encountered and work with patients that weren’t able to recognise themselves in the mirror. In these patients, the phenomenon was observed in the context of complex trauma, while neurological damage to the brain, psychosis and intellectual disability had not been identified as explanations. This presentation is an attempt to understand the psychological significance of this inability. I will start by explaining how our reflection in the mirror is the basis of our identity, then I will explore how severe C-PTSD impacts being thus creating a form of ontological uncertainty and how the individual might attempt to repair this phenomenon through intensive identification, and finally we will explore how psychoanalytic treatment can potentially restore identity and the ability to recognise one’s own reflection.
Keywords: Inability to recognise one’s own reflection; Perceptual distortion; Phenomenology; Psychoanalysis; Identity
Cite this article
Shepherd, K. (2026). On the impossibility of recognising one’s own reflection in the mirror in severe forms of C-PTSD. Perspectives on Complex Trauma, 7(1). https://www.complextraumainstitute.org/post/on-the-impossibility-of-recognising-one-s-own-reflection-in-the-mirror-in-severe-forms-of-c-ptsd
Copyright and licence
© 2026 The Author(s).
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
Published by the Complex Trauma Institute.
ISSN 2635-0807