Status Updates From Trauma en herstel

‘when a large group of children were followed from birth until adulthood, roughly one child in ten showed an unusual capacity to withstand an adverse early environment.These children were characterized by an alert, active temperament, unusual sociability and skill in communicating with others,& a strong sense of being able to affect their own destiny, which psychologists call "internal locus of control."’ (p.33)

“No two people have identical reactions, even to the same event. The traumatic syndrome, despite its many constant features, is not the same for everyone. In a study of combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, for example, each man's predominant symptom pattern was related to his individual childhood history, emotional conflicts, and adaptive style.” (p. 32)

The traumatic event thus destroys the belief that one can be oneself in relation to others.Unsatisfactory
resolution of the normal developmental conflicts over autonomy leaves the person prone to shame and doubt.These same emotional reactions reappear in the aftermath of traumatic events.Shame is a response to helplessness, the violation of bodily integrity, and the indignity suffered in the eyes of another person.

A secure sense of connection with caring people is the
fondation of personality development. When this connection is shattered, the traumatized person loses her basic sense of self. Developmental conflicts of childhood and adolescence, long since resolved, are suddenly reopened. Trauma forces the survivor to relive all her earlier struggles over autonomy, initiative, competence, identity, and intimacy. (p. 29)

The damage to relational life is not a secondary effect of trauma, as originally thought. Traumatic events have primary effects not only on psychological structures of the self but also on the systems of attachment and meaning that link individual and community. Mardi Horowitz defines traumatic life events as those that cannot be assimilated with the victim's "inner schemata" of self in relation to the world. (p.29)

In Chapter 2 of Trauma and Recovery, Judith Herman connects Freud’s classic concept of the compulsion to repeat with psychiatrist Mardi Horowitz’s cognitive framework, the completion principle. Both concepts address the exact same psychological puzzle: Why do traumatized individuals continuously re-experience, re-enact, or relive terrifying experiences that cause them profound distress?