Unconscious
Part of the mind that an individual is unaware of which stores feelings, thoughts and memories which may have an effect on conscious thoughts and actions.
Helen evidently has PTSD from the rape she experienced over twenty years ago. Since the topic of the trauma itself has been avoided most of her life, it has been easy for her to repress the memories which have been lying dormant in her unconscious mind. Revisiting the place of the rape triggered memories, emotions, and thoughts associated with the traumatic event which caused her to experience symptoms of PTSD. Her PTSD symptoms are a reaction to a situational variable demonstrated by her unconscious defenses as her memories came back into her conscious mind. Strean (2000)
The victim speaks about how much her life has changed since the incident. She speaks about "sleeping with the lights on", showing the fact that she is still scared a year and a half later. The "long and invasive" rape exams effected the victim not only mentally but also physically. The psychological damage inflicted on rape victims is long lasting. The victim uses words like
While the conditions of Mrs. Rowlandson’s captivity could cause Stockholm syndrome, the symptoms displayed favor a diagnosis of PTSD. The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry gives four conditions as a definition for Stockholm Syndrome: (I). A perceived threat to one’s physical or psychological survival at the hands of an abuser(s); (II). Perceived small kindnesses from the abuser to the victim; (III). Isolation from perspectives other than those of the abuser; and (IV). The inescapability of the situation.”
As Alice was going through major hell during the rape and even after the rape, it seemed as it was not taken seriously by others. Alice describes her pain, fears, and many problems that came along the way when it came for fighting for herself and the after effect of the rape. Being a rape victim was not easy, and Alice showed many signals that she needed more than just comfort, but sadly many of them failed to provide that for her.
(Oltmanns,Emery, 2015) A trauma may include rape, which in Melinda Sordino’s case is what she experienced. Melinda Sordino can be diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder, as opposed to acute stress disorder, because her disturbance after the trauma had lasted longer than a month. Symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder include intrusive re-experiencing, avoidance of reminders of the trauma, increased arousal or reactivity, negative moods or thoughts, and often dissociation. (Oltmanns,Emery, 2015) Weeks after the terrifying experience, Melinda Sordino experienced all of
held and acted upon by a person’s subconscious mind and often is unknown to them
The sudden recovery of repressed memories from a traumatic event such as childhood sexual abuse can be both validating and confusing for clients that are seeking help with various problems. These new memories might be able to help client identify the cause of their feelings and issues that are affecting their life. However for others it can be a very difficult time because of the conflicting emotions about the abuser. Worst of all when dealing with the recovery of repressed memories they may be all together false. The accuracy of recovered memories in regards to sexual abuse is low and can come with significant consequences. These false memories can be very harmful to the client as
Topic Repressed Memories Repression is a defensive strategy whereby people suppress uncomfortable or disagreeable ideas from their conscious minds. An essential component of Freud's psychoanalytic theory was repressed memories. He held that memories that were too painful to face, especially catastrophic ones, were suppressed and eliminated from conscious awareness. (Sussex Publishers, n.d.). The tale of Nicole Kluemper illuminates the subtleties of suppressed memories.
Topic Repressed Memories Repression is a defensive strategy whereby people suppress uncomfortable or disagreeable ideas from their conscious minds. An essential component of Freud's psychoanalytic theory was repressed memories. He held that memories that were too painful to face, especially catastrophic ones, were suppressed and eliminated from conscious awareness. (Sussex Publishers, n.d.). The tale of Nicole Kluemper illuminates the subtleties of suppressed memories.
PTSD is a psychological problem that affects people who have survived a traumatic experience. When a person experiences a traumatic event in their life, that event leaves a type of scar on their mind. Unlike physical scars, psychological scars may not heal and the person may be unaware of their symptoms. While these “scars” may not be obvious at first, they may cause problems later in life, sometimes months or years later. This makes recognizing the disorder difficult. However, much research in recent years has increased people’s knowledge of the symptoms of PTSD. It was first defined as a disorder in 1980 by the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) (Galea et al., 2005).
The author didn’t mention the memories of traumatic abuse she had been repressing in her life. The repressed memories didn’t affect her much until severe problems struck when she was 16 years old and studying for her A-Level. Started from depression, the problem was worsened that she could wake up the next morning forgetting how she would hurt herself with bruises and cuts on her body or how she fell asleep (Survivor Blog, 2009).
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
A particular traumatic setting, traumatic thrashing in addition to an inevitable association with an overwhelming oppressor, bringing about particular PTSD manifestations, proposes that PTSD research may profit by more prominent thought of settings: predator, conspecific and natural, combined with other logical attributes. This may prompt to more noteworthy understandability and consistency of treatment reactions. It appears differently in relation to a general malfunctioning malady based
Some might be outraged at the notion that rape is not to be considered a tragedy. It is, of course, a horrific act. One that inflicts so much damage that it can cause PTSD type triggers in survivors. Rape is a before/after moment, people who experience it begin to think of how life was before and now after the event. For instance, with the character Salima, her life before the incident included a loving family with her “good husband” (35) and
Freud continued his work on repression, memories, and past experiences of trauma to be the motive for all neurotic symptoms. Trauma in past experiences was not always the key determinant for hysteria cases, there needed to be another component for the cause. The combination of past trauma and present trauma awakened memories of the earlier trauma which constituted the true aggravation (Storr, 1989, p. 15). However, he began to see a common factor in his work. Next Freud noticed that a common denominator of all his hysteria cases was premature sexual experiences. Sex encompasses many emotions through mind, body, and spirit that can influence a great deal of character if repressed. Storr pointed out that, “Freud became more and more convinced that the chief