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 … Read the rest
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. … Read the rest
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 … Read the rest
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 … Read the rest
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 … Read the rest
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 :
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.… Read the rest
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 … Read the rest
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 … Read the rest
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 … Read the rest
Above image: Creative Commons Licence
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 … Read the rest
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, … Read the rest
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 … Read the rest
What Does ‘Diathesis’ Mean?
The medical definition of ‘diathesis’ is ‘a hereditary or constitutional predisposition to a disease or other disorder.‘ (The word ‘diathesis’ itself derives from the Greek word for ‘disposition).
What Is The Diathesis-Stress Model?
The diathesis-stress … Read the rest
The Link Between Childhood Trauma, Psychopathology And Sexual Orientation
Childhood Trauma And Sexual Orientation :
A study, based on statistics and information derived from the National Longitudinal Study Of Adolescent Health (2001-2002) examined the link between sexual orientation and history … Read the rest
