As the Pendulum Swings: The Etiology of PTSD, Complex PTSD, and Revictimization (original) (raw)
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DOI: 10.13140/2.1.4134.2409 Conference: Presented to the first joint scientific meeting of the American College of Psychoanalysts and the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Psychodynamic Psychiatry, Washington DC. —An effort to integrate data from videotaped interviews of severely traumatized persons (especially children) with physiological, imaging, and psychological studies in light of evolutionary theory of altruism. PTSD is considered a biologically altruistic, gene-pool survival enhancing reaction to life threat. Analogy is drawn to aspects of the cellular level of immune process. Information-laden circulating proteins act as signals replicating some of the molecular characteristics of the invaders. Though the individual cell may be handicapped by immune response, the community of cells usually profits. Similarly, when life-threat is perceived by the human individual, memory focuses on that threat and is occupied by producing replicas. These are intrusive involuntary processes: thoughts, flashbacks and nightmares with details of the life-threat. Behavioral sensorimotor memory enactments occur about details of the threat. Though individual behavior, memory and perceptual life are thus impoverished, survival of surrounding individuals and the gene-pool profit from the behaviorally transmitted information. This gene-pool value was present before the development of language. Therapeutic implications are discussed. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.1891.2808 2015-04-15 T 02:52:13 UTC
Traumatogenic Disturbances: PTSD, Complex PTSD and Trauma-Related Disorders
2018
Regarding traumatogenic disturbances, there were many changes and new developments during last years both in the psychodynamic understanding and in neuroscience. DSM-5 made major changes on PTSD but didn’t recognise the diagnosis of complex PTSD, which is now established in the PDM-2, and it is accepted by the task force for the expected ICD-11.
Posttraumatic stress disorder and the nature of trauma
Dialogues in clinical neuroscience, 2000
The role of psychological trauma (eg, rape, physical assaults, torture, motor vehicle accidents) as an etiological factor in mental disorders, anticipated as early as the 19th century by Janet, Freud, and Breuer, and more specifically during World War I and II by Kardiner, was "rediscovered" some 20 years ago in the wake of the psychological traumas inflicted by the Vietnam war and the discussion "in the open " of sexual abuse and rape by the women's liberation movement, 1980 marked a major turning point, with the incorporation of the diagnostic construct of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) into the 3rd edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) and the definition of its main diagnostic criteria (reexperiencing of the traumatic event, avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma, and symptoms of increased arousal). Initially described as resulting from a onetime severe traumatic incident, PTSD has now been shown to b...
Journal of Clinical Psychology, 1989
The Guest Editors wish to thank the Editor, Vladimir Pishkin, the Publisher, Patricia T. Wood, and the Editorial Board of the Journal of Clinical Psychology for commissioning a second monograph on Vietnam combat-related Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
A historical review of trauma-related diagnoses to reconsider the heterogeneity of PTSD
2014
Based on the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, there are 636,120 ways for an individual to qualify for a diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) . To unravel this heterogeneity, we examine the historical trajectory of trauma-related diagnoses. Our review addresses four traumas (i.e., combat, natural disaster, life-threatening accident and sexual assault) that have contributed the most to conceptual models of PTSD. Although these trauma types are all subsumed under the same diagnostic label, our literature review indicates that the psychological consequences of different traumatic experiences are traditionally studied in isolation. Indeed, most research addresses hypotheses regarding specific trauma types using samples of individuals selected for their experience with that specific event. We consider the possibility that PTSD is not a single, unified construct and what this means for future research and clinical applications.
The Prevalence and Longitudinal Course of PTSD
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1997
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) cannot just be looked at from a cross-sectional perspective. It progresses and changes with the passage of time.'.2 This suggests that the neurobiology should be viewed as being in a progressive state of modification in the different stages of the disorder. This issue needs to be considered against the background of a series of observations that have emerged which were not anticipated two decades ago.3 First, PSTD is the exception rather than the rule following exposure to trauma. The disorder is not a normal response to an abnormal experience, because many studies have shown the existence of risk factors other than trauma as predictors of PTSD. The biological data suggest the atypical rather than normative nature of
A paradigm shift in the conceptualization of psychological trauma in the 20th century
Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 2007
The inclusion of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in DSM-III in 1980 represented a paradigm shift in the conceptualisation of post-trauma illness. Hitherto, a normal psychological reaction to a terrifying event was considered short-term and reversible. Long-term effects, characterized as ''traumatic neurosis'', were regarded as abnormal. Enduring symptoms were explained in terms of hereditary predisposition, early maladaptive experiences or a pre-existing psychiatric disorder. The event served merely as a trigger to something that existed or was waiting to emerge. Secondary gain, the benefits often but not solely financial that a person derived as a result of being ill, was considered the principal cause of any observed failure to recover. The recognition of PTSD reflected a diversion from the role of the group, in particular the ''herd instinct'', towards a greater appreciation of the individual's experience. From being the responsibility of the subject, traumatic illness became an external imposition and possibly a universal response to a terrifying and unexpected event. This shift from predisposition to the characteristics of the event itself reduced guilt and blame, while the undermining of secondary gain made it easier to award financial compensation. #