Whether or not an event is ‘traumatic’ depends upon the individual’s subjective experience. What one individual may find traumatizing, another may not. Furthermore, two individuals traumatized by the same event/experience may be traumatized by different aspects of the experience as well as in different ways. If a person is traumatized by an excessively stressful event […]
In the 1940s, at the request of the Office of Strategic Services (a former incarnation of the Criminal Intelligence Agency (CIA), a psychiatrist by the name of Walter Langer produced a psychological profile of Hitler, including details about his childhood. Below, I summarize the most salient findings. Adolf Hitler’s father was described as frequently intoxicated, […]
Extreme Mental Pain We have seen in other articles that I have previously published on this site that, if we have suffered severe and long-lasting childhood trauma, and, in particular, were brought up by parents who were emotionally disconnected from us, rejecting, indifferent, absent, abusive (verbally, physically, sexually, psychologically) or neglectful (or, as is frequently […]
We have already seen, in other posts that I have published on this site, that significant and protracted childhood trauma can put the individual who suffers it at higher risk of developing various psychiatric problems later on in life, including obsessive-compulsive disorder. In this particular article, however, I will concentrate upon a variant of obsessive-compulsive […]
Having parents who treat us in a passive-aggressive manner can have an extremely adverse effect upon our mental health; indeed, Scott Wetzler PhD, an expert in these matters, based at Montefiore Medical Center, has said, quite unequivocally, that being on the receiving end of passive-aggressive behaviour can lead to the victim feeling as if […]
The possible effects of childhood trauma on children under the age of six years are extensive and can be divided into three main categories. These three categories are as follows : BEHAVIOURAL EFFECTS COGNITIVE EFFECTS (i.e. effects on thinking and conscious mental processes) PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS (i.e. effects on physical health and biological processes) Below, I […]
Arrested Psychological Development Traumatic life events can cause the child to become ‘stuck’ at a particular level of psychological development for an extended period – he may, therefore, often seem immature as development was frozen at an earlier stage. For example, an eleven-year-old child who was abandoned by his/her primary carer at age four […]
How Does Dysthymia Differ From Major Depression? Children who experience significant and protracted trauma and/or stress during childhood are at increased risk of developing a condition known as dysthymia, which is sometimes described as a less severe/dramatic version of major depression. Because its symptoms tend not to be as obvious as those of major […]
Stith’s (2009) Meta-Analysis : A study carried out by Stith et al. (2009) reviewed 155 other studies (this is called a meta-analysis) that had already been carried out in order to identify factors that put the child at risk of physical abuse by his/her parents. In order to identify these factors, one part of […]
One of the main hallmarks of borderline personality disorder (BPD) is the pronounced tendency of those who suffer from it to display marked rigidity in relation to both their thought processes and behaviours. This means that, when events occur, the way in which the BPD sufferer interprets them tend to be habitual and fixed and […]
Parental Maltreatment Of Children : Except in very extreme cases, such as severe physical abuse, the vast majority of parental mistreatment of children not only goes unreported, but is unacknowledged and, essentially, ignored (although this situation is gradually improving as people become more educated about the potentially devastating effects of bad parenting). Emotional Abuse […]
Above image: Creative Commons Licence Problems Relating To The Diagnosis Of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD): In order to be diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD) an individual must suffer from AT LEAST FIVE SYMPTOMS out of a total of NINE listed in the DSM V (The Diagnostic And Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition). […]
Peter Fonagy, an internationally renowned clinical psychologist, psychoanalyst and expert in borderline psychopathology and early attachment relationships, and who has produced some of the most influential work relating to this field, has stressed the importance of MENTALISING (or, more precisely, the avoidance of it) in relation to borderline personality disorder (BPD). What Is Meant By […]
The Study: A Mouse Model Of Early-Life Stress : This experiment was conducted to look at the effects on mice of early-life stress. It involved separating baby mice from their mothers for three hours per day for each of the first ten days of their lives. Results Of The Study : It was found that the […]
What Is The Corpus Callosum? The brain is divided into two halves called the RIGHT HEMISPHERE and the LEFT HEMISPHERE. These two halves are connected by a structure called the CORPUS CALLOSUM. The function of the corpus callosum is to allow communication to take place between the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere; it […]
