Mrs Dalloway Gatsby Trauma Analysis

Trauma is defined as having a deeply distressing or disturbing experience, or having a physical injury.

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

Trauma is perceived as a physical or psychological threat or assault to a person’s physical integrity, sense of self, safety and/or survival or to the physical safety of a significant other; family member, friend, partner. (Kilpatrick, Saunders, and Smith, 2003). An adolescent may experience trauma from a variety of experiences, including but not limited to: abuse (sexual, physical, and/or emotional); neglect; abandonment; bullying; exposure to domestic violence and/ or community violence; natural disasters; medical procedures; loss/grief due to a death of a family member(s); surgery; accidents or serious illness; and war (Kilpatrick, Saunders, and Smith, 2003).

Sixty percent of adults report experiencing abuse or other difficult family circumstances during childhood. (Mental Health Connection, N.D.). This shocking statistic exemplifies the high prevalence of childhood trauma. Furthermore, twenty-six percent of children in the United States will witness or experience a traumatic event before the age of four. (Mental Health Connection, N.D.) Trauma is an extremely common and complex phenomenon. But what is trauma? According to Merriam Webster, trauma is defined as, “a disordered psychic or behavioral state resulting from severe mental or emotional stress or physical injury.” (Merriam Webster, 2017). Dr. Lenore C. Terr from the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of America further describes trauma as unique to each individual. It can be caused by a series of events or one severe incident. Unfortunately, childhood trauma is usually experienced repeatedly. For example, many children endure sexual abuse, bullying, and severe family problems over and over again. Children may experience a variety of traumas that have lasting consequences on their mental health. Those who experience childhood trauma are more likely to develop psychological disorders. This occurs because their brains lack neuroplasticity, which inhibits their ability to adapt to various stressful circumstances.

This cause included actual threatened or serious injury, threat to one’s physical integrity, witnessing an event that involves death, injury, or threat to the physical integrity of another person, also learning about unexpected or violent death, serious harm, or threat of death or injury experienced by a family member or other close associate. For example, I have friends that lives in Chicago. They always tell me how violent some parts of the area arevery dangerous. A couple of years ago I was told that one of my friends witnessed our friend getting shot to death. Now my friend can’t sleep at night, he has vivid memories of the moment it happened even if it was years ago. When we go through things in our life it puts us in different spaces which can be hard for an individual to move on from. Examples of traumatic events experienced directly include military combat, violent personal assault (sexual assault, physical attack, robbery, mugging, being kidnapped, being taken hostage, terrorists attack, torture, incarceration as a prisoner of war or in a concentrationcamp, natural or manmade disasters, severe automobile accidents. Examples of events experienced by others that are learned about. Learning of a violent personal assault, serious accident, or serious injury experienced by a family member or a close friend, learning about a sudden, unexpected death of a family member or close friend, learning that one’s child has a life-threatening disease. One learned event that has personally affected me has to be the death of my mom. My mom’s death was unexpected. When we go through things it makes us feel anavoid in our lives, at least that’s how I feel. I feel like a piece of my heart is gone from that experience. It was also traumatizing learning that one of my close friends from childhood was been molested by her father for years. When I found out about my friend going through that it made me very scared

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

Trauma occurs when a child has experienced an event that threatens or causes harm to her emotional and physical well-being. Events can include war, terrorism, natural disasters, but the most common and harmful to a child’s psychosocial well-being are those such as domestic violence, neglect, physical and sexual abuse, maltreatment, and witnessing a traumatic event. While some children may experience a traumatic event and go on to develop normally, many children have long lasting implications into adulthood.

Trauma is something that can affect anyone at any time depending on the circumstance, no matther whether young or old (Briere, 1997). Trauma has been called “irritable heart” and “shell schock” but after a large amount of soldiers coming home from wars were all experiencing similar symptoms, the American Psychological Association started to identify it as a specific disorder many could potentially have; Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). There were many causes that were said to have caused PTSD, some that were identified in Psychological Assessment of Adult Posttraumatic States were: disasters, war, rape, sexual assault,large-scale, transportation accidents, emergency worker exposure to trauma, spouse or partner battery, torture, child abuse (1997). Like stated above, PTSD is not only for war victimes, it turns out that it started having different levels that was associated to children as well. This then caused for a creation of various assessments that could be administered depending on the age as well as the form of trauma.

War, tragedy, and trauma; life altering situations such as these may cause someone to feel unsafe for the rest of their life. A symptom that may come about from these types of situations is something known as PTSD. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a symptom that may occur after an individual is subjected to a traumatic event in which they were exposed to physical harm or the threat of harm. PTSD may stem from many causes and usually involves situations where an individual does not have full control over what is occurring. Every situation is different and the intensity of the disorder may range from a very mild case to a life-threatening situation. Individuals with PTSD typically possess this condition throughout their lifetime with no known cure that has yet been established.

Most people often fail to perceive trauma accurately. In many occasions, some individuals often dismiss or think of it as something that is curable. However, it is an unfortunate and complicated form of damage that requires careful consideration and is not easy to deal with. Besides, trauma occurs on a scale that varies depending on each individual. It is arguable that nearly every individual has dealt with trauma in their lives.

Traumas caused by stress if elongated, can progress into PTSD, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Stress is something that is manageable and it may not be easy. However if stress develops after a traumatic event than PTSD can occur. After something traumatic happens the body and mind go into shock. With PTSD a patient’s mind stays in shock. PTSD is a usually severe stressor. It comprises a forceful fear within those that have it. This disorder can only be diagnosed one month after a traumatic experience. Patients will, physiologically, re-experience the event over and over again. They will seem distant and depressed and avoid things. These traumatic experiences differ from people to people. Traumatic events that cause PTSD can range from death

According to Merriam-Webster, trauma is defined as a serious injury or wound to living tissue caused by an extrinsic agent; a very difficult or unpleasant experience that causes a person to have mental or emotional disturbances, usually for an extended period of time. There are many types of trauma that can affect a child’s development, specifically neural development.

Of these trauma survivors up to 20% develop PTSD. Put another way, approximately 13 million Americans- 5% of the population suffers from PTSD at any given time.(Goulston, 2008 ) Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a type of anxiety disorder acquired when a person becomes a victim of some form of trauma. Trauma can come in the form of experiencing natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, or floods. Personal traumas such as being robbed, assaulted, raped, physically or sexually abused, or tortured can cause PTSD. Those who have suffered extreme illness such as Cancer and AIDS may experience it. And even those who have watched their loved ones suffer through extreme illnesses can succumb to the disorder. They suffer what is called a secondary trauma. It has even been recently discovered that someone viewing media coverage of a traumatic event can even get PTSD. There were people viewing the live coverage of the 9/11 attacks in 2001, that triggered the same types of emotional and physical responses as if they were physically at Ground Zero! Naturally, those who have served in the military- especially those who have survived wars and gone to combat, are highly at risk for PTSD. So what exactly is a trauma? When we think of the word trauma we often think of something horrendous, something horrible or really, really bad. But what actually constitutes something as a trauma and not just a normal everyday

(194; emphasis added) As Mrs. Dalloway and other Woolf novels such as To the Lighthouse and The Waves repeatedly demonstrate, however, feeling exists in flux, stronger one moment, weaker the next. Septimus feels his wife loves him, but this feeling does not exist for him, or isn’t strong enough, when he jumps to his death. His suicide offers eternal life to no one, of course, but, faintly evoking Jesus’ story of persecution, death, and resurrection, news of the ex-soldier’s death reaches Clarissa’s party and emotionally rejuvenates the hostess, who feels “glad” that Septimus “had done it”; the death of a man whom she never met “made her feel the beauty; made her feel the fun” (186). If this is all that a man’s death can achieve, however—a transient moment of “fun”—the impoverishment of Mrs. Dalloway’s world is clear. Although feeling incapable of love contributes to Septimus’ death, the immediate cause is societal cruelty. Dr. Bradshaw and Dr. Holmes should want to heal Septimus but they persecute him instead, representing society’s impulse to bully outsiders into conformity, to demand oblations for the voracious God substitute “divine proportion” (99) “Once you stumble, Septimus wrote on the back of a postcard, human nature is on