Therapist’s Reflection: Trauma, Survival, and the Haunting of Ebenezer Scrooge
By: Tyler S. VanAllen MA, LPC, ESMHL
Watching FX’s A Christmas Carol as a therapist is like stepping into a mirror hall. The reflections are warped, dark, and uncomfortable. Ebenezer Scrooge is not merely a “miserly old man”—he is a case study in trauma, adaptation, and the slow, painful architecture of fear. And like many trauma survivors, his story is both cautionary and instructive.
Childhood as the First Ghost
FX’s adaptation does not shy away from Scrooge’s childhood cruelty. The series reveals a young boy sent away to a boarding school, effectively abandoned. Abuse is allowed under the guise of discipline, and his father’s indifference confirms the boy’s worst fear: he is only as valuable as he is useful.
From a trauma perspective, this is profound. Judith Herman writes that early betrayal by caregivers shatters trust and organizes the self around survival rather than growth (Trauma and Recovery, 1992). Scrooge internalizes:
Safety is transactional.
Love is conditional.
Vulnerability is dangerous.
The boy disappears inward to survive—a survival strategy that hardens into the man we meet.
The Adult: Armor and Adaptation
By adulthood, Scrooge is encased in defenses that are both genius and pathology. He has learned to protect himself by withdrawing from emotion, controlling every transaction, and treating relationships as risks to manage rather than connections to nourish.
Bessel van der Kolk writes that trauma “reorganizes the brain and body” (The Body Keeps the Score, 2014). Scrooge exemplifies this: detachment, hyper-control, and cynicism are survival tools that have calcified into identity.
FX emphasizes this through vivid, unsettling imagery:
The coal mines collapse under his orders, a direct consequence of prioritizing profit over people.
He demands Mary Cratchit barter her dignity to secure her son’s care, showing how old survival patterns—learned in childhood—repeat in his moral life.
The ghosts force him to witness his own role in human suffering, turning the ledger of profit into a ledger of blood and loss.
Scrooge is not evil. He is adaptive. He is haunted. And he is haunted because he refuses to let the past remain buried.
The Ghosts as Trauma Therapy
In this version, the ghosts operate like trauma-informed interventions. They do not guide; they expose. They drag Scrooge to the frozen pond, the empty coffin, the suffering family, the abused child he once was. They force him to confront:
The child who hid to survive.
The adult who hurt others to survive.
The lives he touched with harm, negligence, or indifference.
Trauma therapy often mirrors this process. To heal, one must witness the past fully, feel the embedded fear and grief, and differentiate between survival strategies that once saved you and the patterns that now harm you.
The Dark Work of Healing
FX’s Scrooge does not heal with a single epiphany. Healing, in real trauma work, is never instantaneous. It is slow, painful, and iterative. Scrooge demonstrates the core principles of recovery:
Acknowledging the Past – Seeing what happened without self-blame.
Recognizing Adaptive Behaviors – Understanding that cruelty, detachment, or hyper-control were strategies, not character defects.
Reconnecting with Humanity – Risking connection, empathy, and vulnerability, even when it hurts.
Integrating the Self – Allowing the child, the adult, and the survivor to exist together.
This is not redemption. It is reclamation.
Lessons for Survivors
Watching Scrooge, I am reminded that trauma often teaches us “skills” that no longer serve us. Like Scrooge, many of us have learned:
To numb emotion to survive.
To distrust connection.
To prioritize safety over fulfillment.
But FX’s adaptation also reminds us that confronting our ghosts—painful, necessary, and relentless—can allow us to choose differently. It is not easy. It is not pretty. But it is human.
A Cry from the Depths
In one of the series’ most chilling moments, Scrooge whispers to the Spirit of the Future:
“Do not show me what I already know.”
That line resonates with anyone who has carried trauma: the past is heavy, the patterns are familiar, and the truth can feel unbearable. Yet, as in therapy, it is facing the unbearable that allows transformation.
FX’s A Christmas Carol reminds us: trauma shapes the world we see, the behaviors we enact, and the fears we carry. Healing does not erase the ghosts; it teaches us how to walk among them without being ruled by them. Scrooge’s story is gothic, brutal, and, ultimately, instructive. For survivors, it is both mirror and map: a reminder that we can reclaim our lives from the cold architecture of our past.
Learn more and watch “A Christmas Carol” FX Version here: https://share.google/aAnyMhSCxgCuvZO7g