Microtrauma, microtraumatic relational patterns in our lives. Does constant dripping wears away the stone?

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present the phenomenon of psychological microtrauma, a trauma that is cumulative in nature and results from prolonged exposure to many stressful situations in one area of suffering that are usually not so severe as those causing post-traumatic stress disorder and are included in criterion A in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The introduction to the International Classification of Diseases 11th Revision of a new disorder named complex post-traumatic stress disorder, despite allowing a better understanding of people who experience chronically repeating traumas, does not explain the consequences of microtrauma which can be approached from psycho-dynamic, clinical and social perspectives. Taking into account the difficulties associated with identifying microtrauma, knowledge of this phenomenon could be useful for clinicians and their patients. The theory of microtrauma is a promising area of research and may finally bring the answer why there is a high prevalence of diagnosing post-traumatic disorder among people who experience not severe but chronic stressful events in one area in terms of content in their daily lives, e.g. discrimination. It shows how much is still ahead of us in understanding trauma and how rich and complex this phenomenon is.