Cathy Caruth Trauma And Experience Analysis

Jane is a nine year old girl who has been brought in to therapy by her mother for stealing, being destructive, lying, behaving aggressively toward her younger siblings, and acting cruelly to animals. Jane has also been acting clingy and affectionate toward strangers.

The term “Psychological trauma” refers to damage wrought from a traumatic event, which that damages one’s ability to cope with stressors. “Trauma” is commonly defined as an exposure to a situation in which a person is confronted with an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to self or others’ physical well-being (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Specific types of client trauma frequently encountered by which therapists and other mental health workers frequently encounter in a clinical setting include sexual abuse, physical , or sexual assault, natural disasters such as earthquakes or tsunamis, domestic violence, and school or/and work related violence (James & Gilliland, 2001). Traumatic

A trauma informed model of practice should centre upon a perspective that asks the client user ‘what happened to you’ rather than ‘what is wrong with you’ (Bloom and Farragher). This approach promotes the base line for which the service should be impliemented; an approach which enable to cliet to connect how their trauma has influence their behaviour, feelings, coping mechanisim and general perspective (Felitti et al. 1998). Staff within the home should have a good degree of trauma informed care as this enable for a deeper understanding of how the trauma can impact upon the individual and allow for holistic care (Harris and Fallot, 2001) and enables better support and help reduce to protential for re-tramatisation via triggers and uncousious re-enactment of trauma (SAMHSA, 2010). Implementing the above approach the client can receive the holistic carer they require in order to begin to overcome the trauma they have experienced.

The repetition of these traumatic events and the stress caused by these events can manifest itself in physiological and psychological disorders which, over the course of the 20th century have changed names and

Trauma is an experience of such intensity, that it overwhelms the boundaries of the self. The intensity of trauma might indeed overwhelm psychological resources, fragmenting the idea of the ego and altering the ability to sense self, and distinguish reality from fragmented reality. From such trauma many issues may arise, including psychosis. Psychosis is characterised by an impaired relationship with reality and can be seen through a depressed mood, anxiety, suspiciousness or paranoia, withdrawal from family and friends, and hallucinations. Psychosis could mean a complete loss in being able to distinguish between truth and reality, and losing a sense of self. Literary works, through different literary elements can shape the meaning of

In Susan Farrell, the author of “Just Listen”: Witnessing Trauma in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, mentioned “...all theorists agree that the process of recovery from trauma must involve a narrativization of traumatic event--putting a sensory images into words in order to integrate trauma into a person 's life story” (186). However, without reading Cathy Caruth’s Trauma, readers will not understand that not only integrating trauma into a narrative will help them recover but it also allows the witness apprehend their flashbacks into meaning. Flashbacks, although are taunting, has the most vivid images compared to narrated memories. For one to remember a highlight or a significant moment, one must preserve it as a flashback. In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien convert his flashbacks into narrative memories allowing himself and readers to comprehend his experiences, but O’Brien also added flashbacks into his memories create the most graphic images for the readers.

Trauma comes from the Greek –  meaning wound, and meaning damage, harm, or impairment. Trauma affects every body. The traumatized person will experience dissociation, disbelief, isolation, and hopelessness. They will often wonder “Where is God and why has he left me?”

“American Psychiatric Association defines trauma as an event that represents a threat to life or personal integrity. Trauma can also be experienced when children are faced with a caregiver who acts erratically, emotional and /or physical neglect, and exploitation” (Maltby, L., & Hall, T. 2012. p. 304). Trauma comes in many different forms including: war, rape, kidnapping, abuse, sudden injury, and

When working with clients in today’s society it’s extremely important to take into consideration the specific needs of each individual. Serious contemplation is given to the approaches and methods regarding the client’s need and presenting matters. Trauma appears in many forms in society, even from the 1960’s due to the impact on returning soldiers from war. Since this, trauma has been categorised and widely researched leading to numerous theories. Psychotherapies were one of the first approaches to be founded in the 1970’s, which were the foundations to counselling

Trauma has sorrowfully touched upon the lives of millions of people worldwide. Many sources of trauma are typically physical in nature, but many may also take a toll on the perceptual state of an individual. Although trauma is a human’s natural emotional response to a shocking occurrence, it may leave a lasting impact on one’s psychological stability. The exact moment of a traumatic event is the initial launch of an individual’s mental illness. Mitchard is able to provide us with the initial moments of Beth’s traumatic loss when she explains that, “It was then that Beth’s breathing

When I decided to take the trauma course, I was hesitant at first to take it. I did not know what to expect nor felt I would be prepare listen to stories about traumatic occurrences, despite of the number of years I have worked in the field of community mental health. Therefore, now that we are in week eight, I am delighted to have taken this course. The impression I had at first, has changed my insight concerning what is trauma, as for many years, I did not understand why a person in many instances, could not process their trauma. In a quote by Chang stated, “The greater the doubt, the greater the awakening; the smaller the doubt, the smaller the awakening. No doubt, no awakening” (Van Der Kolk, 2014, p. 22). The goes in congruence with my understanding on trauma and how it has changed during this course. As a result, I feel I am awakening when acquiring more about trauma.

In Judith Herman’s book, Trauma and Recovery, she discusses her research and work with trauma survivors. In her book, she writes that, “traumatic events are extraordinary, not because they occur rarely, but rather because they overwhelm the ordinary human adaptations to life” (Herman 24). She explores the idea that trauma is as individual as it is common, with reactions and the journey to the post-traumatic self similar despite differences in events. In the case of Barbara Gordon, while the event may vary, her physical and mental trauma can be compared to America’s fear of its forfeiture of power to terror and the loss of the towers after September 11, 2001. Trauma is about more than just the physical ramifications; when the physical aspect is fixed, Barbara’s legs and the building of the 1 World Trade Center, the mental and emotional trauma still remain.

Judith Lewis Herman’s Trauma and Recovery provides not only greater understanding of how a traumatic event may defined but also the ways in which the effects of the experience may have a significantly repressing effect on the present and future self. Traumatic events are impressing on the self because they overwhelm the conventional emotional and physical perceptions that humanity has adjusted and modified their selves to. As traumatic events generally involve threats to the emotional and physical self, they differ from common misfortunes as they confront the victim with the feeling of extreme terror and helplessness that in result causes the individual to perceive the experience as one that was out of their control. As Herman reiterates, according to the Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry, “The common denominator of psychological trauma is a feeling of “intense fear, helplessness, loss of control, and threat of annihilation” (Herman 104). However, it is the response to the traumatic event in the emotional or conscious self that may differ from one another as there are three differing reactions to the terror factor of trauma: hyper-arousal, intrusion, and disconnection. Throughout this essay the work of Judith Lewis Herman’s Trauma and Recovery as well as Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower will be utilized to illustrated the compromising effects a traumatic experience such as childhood sexual abuse may have on the development of a young teen and the ways in

Judith Herman’s Trauma and Recovery was an amazing read because it tackles the question of “What does it actually mean to be traumatized?” Every single person, no matter how old, has experienced some level of fear— especially those of us who live in NYC! Whether it’s a yellow cab running a red light as you cross 56th Street, the aggressive homeless man on the 6 train who can’t accept the fact that you don’t have any spare change to give, or that time you decided to have street meat for dinner and were stuck on the toilet for the remainder of your night, we can all identify the ways in which our body responds to moments of distress. You may break out into a sprint, your heart beats against your chest as you sweat profusely, and you might even shed tears. In those moments, your entire existence becomes focused around the perceived life or death situation.

The experience of trauma can be identified as either acute (e.g., natural disaster, serious accident) or chronic (e.g., physical abuse, sexual abuse), which