Rendering the Repetition: Discussion of "Abusive Relations and Traumatic Development: Marginal Notes on a Clinical Case" by Maria Grazia Oldoini.

Dr. Oldoini's compelling case of Greta, organized conceptually as it is around the themes of traumatic development and the repetition compulsion, calls to mind the neglected writings of Paul Russell. I invoke, and commend to the attention of the readership, Russell's coherent and clinically useful theory of the repetition compulsion based on his concept of affective competence and the rendering of the repetition, over time, in the treatment process.