Unconscious Case Study

Because not every traumatised person develops PTSD, researchers are still trying to understand what causes, and increases, the risk of developing PTSD. So far, most of our knowledge of PTSD comes from war survivors, people who lived through concentration camps, and victims of combat from WWII, Korean and Vietnam wars (Bootzin & Ross 1988, p.176). Based on research to date it is believed that PTSD is caused by a combination of several factors including social, biological and psychological and each help contribute to our understanding of the disorder.

Another limitation that can appear when examining the memory of trauma is that trauma victims do not elicit the same response to trauma. Individuals who experience psychological trauma, physical trauma or both all remember the abuse differently. Many trauma victims may have repressed those memories or simply forget the explicit details about their traumatic experiences. Toth and Cicchetti (1998) argue that victims will elicit different responses of they are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and experience trauma on a single or multiple occurrence. Multiple experiences of trauma may give individuals a general memory of the abuse, however, it often overlooks and forget about the unique features of their traumatic experience.

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.”

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

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.

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

|The unconscious |All the thoughts,ideas, and feelings of which we are not and normally cannot become aware. |

(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

Victims of crime with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an important topic to the field of psychology because it occurs in many victims. It is also important to the field because through research its causes and etiology are able to be discovered, treatments are able to be developed and tested for those with the disorder, and ways are found to prevent the disorder in victims. PTSD is a severe anxiety disorder and is recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). The diagnostic criteria for PTSD include, “a history of exposure to a traumatic event meeting two criteria and symptoms from each of three symptom clusters: intrusive recollections, avoidant/numbing symptoms, and hyper-arousal symptoms,” (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Interest in PTSD in victims of crime is the reason for this literature. More interests include prevalence, differences in gender, and treatment options for those who are victims of crime experiencing trauma (sexual and non-sexual), as well as the measures taken to aide these victims. The following paper will discuss different aspects related to victims of crime with PTSD. The gender differences and treatment types for victims of crime with PTSD will be examined.

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).

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

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