The History of Trauma in Psychiatry

To Add Insight to Injury: Childhood Abuse, Abuse Perceptions, and the Emotional and Physical Health of Young Adults

“…However, the remaining disparity between self-labeling of abuse and reported abuse experiences may reflect unawareness for abuse comprised of both individual accommodations to abusive environments and a more general societal unawareness or even denial regarding abuse and its effects. Perceptions of abuse among survivors may be influenced by variations in levels of awareness and training regarding childhood abuse among psychologists (Courtois, 2002;van der Kolk, Weisaeth, & van der Hart, 1996) and in the broader culture (e.g., Herman, 1992). Many mental health providers focus on anxiety, depression, or other symptoms without investigating the possibility of childhood abuse (e.g., Ross, 2000).…”

Integrated Defense System Overlaps as a Disease Model: With Examples for Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

“…Current research and reviews assert that mild dissociation experiences are common in the general population (56) and that strong dissociation is a key and possibly defining component of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (21,(59)(60)(61)(62), borderline personality disorder (BPD) (57,58,60), and multiple personality disorder (MPD) cases (63). All these clinical psychopathologies are associated principally with childhood abuse (21,(57)(58)(59)(60)(63)(64)(65)(66) and their differences may represent stages and facets of the same underlying process (61,62,67,68).…”

“…All these clinical psychopathologies are associated principally with childhood abuse (21,(57)(58)(59)(60)(63)(64)(65)(66) and their differences may represent stages and facets of the same underlying process (61,62,67,68).…”

Modeling posttraumatic stress disorder among victimized women on probation and parole : examining the impact of childhood victimization.

“…Some of the earliest well-known significant writings and literature including the Epic of Gilgamesh (George, 1999) dating from 3,000 BC, and the Iliad (Homer, 1950) dating from 850 BC describe heroes experiencing traumatic events and symptomology. This includes the traumatic death of close companions during battle, and subsequent experience of symptoms including re-current and intrusive recollections of the death, sleep disturbances including nightmares, and feelings of detachment/dissociation associated with a sense of foreshortened future (Birmes et al, 2003;van der Kolk, Weisaeth, & Van der Hart, 1996). Indeed, chronicles of psychological trauma and the associated symptomology (also known as traumatic stress) in the ancient literature often involved heroic actions in the face of violence and death and the tragic effects on the individual (Birmes et al, 2003).…”

“…Soldiers during the Civil War frequently reported heart palpitations and chest pains, thought to be related to physical stress, prompting the label of soldier's heart, irritable heart, effort syndrome, and DaCosta's syndrome (Birmes et al, 2003;Tomb, 1994;van der Kolk, Weisaeth, et al, 1996). Indeed, Weir Mitchel (1861-1865), a physician during the American Civil War, is credited with the first medical reference to the symptoms that we now associate with PTSD, with his use of descriptors such as fits of hysterics with excessive emotionality, lethargy, withdrawal, and physical and psychological exhaustion (O'Brien, 1998;Tomb, 1994) which were subsequently referred to as nostalgia.…”