Melanie Klein versus Judith Herman

Klein versus Herman—according to Judith Herman's approach, psychological splitting is not caused be "envy" as Klein thinks, but rather by external trauma. I would hypothesise that it is the result of not being humanly able to connect—for instance to make a normal, empathetic connection despite a feeling that one needs to -- when the other "subject" confronting one is a hostile, unknowable or ferocious force. This psychological "splitting" seems to be, in Herman's views, automatic (occurring at a preconscious level). I imagine that the neurobiological systems activate it as an emergency mechanism, to protect the vulnerable psyche against psychological overload – ie. One loses consciousness as one does when fainting, but in this case of splitting, only in part.