{"id":64,"date":"2024-09-17T12:50:23","date_gmt":"2024-09-17T12:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crinklefilms.ie\/blogenglish\/?p=64"},"modified":"2026-01-10T17:03:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T17:03:12","slug":"blog-6-trauma-as-a-wound-to-the-psyche-c-trauma-memory-and-its-effects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crinklefilms.ie\/blogenglish\/index.php\/2024\/09\/17\/blog-6-trauma-as-a-wound-to-the-psyche-c-trauma-memory-and-its-effects\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog 6: Trauma as a wound to the psyche, c) Trauma memory and its effects"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\"\"As we have seen, traumatic memories are both unconscious and persistent. Therefore, they are difficult to access and, by maintaining information that is no longer relevant, disrupt our ability to remain connected to our natural and social environment through constant adaptation. The symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder can be traced back to these two characteristics of traumatic memory. These symptoms include:<\/p>

  1. Intrusions and flashbacks. Because the experience of trauma is stored as an unconscious memory in the amygdala, events similar to this experience can lead to a sudden and involuntary re-experiencing of the trauma (LeDoux, 1996). This out of context memory of a past life-threatening event that is not consciously remembered is experienced by the individual themselves and by their social environment as disturbing and absurd and disrupts the person’s relationship with themselves and others.<\/li>
  2. Compulsive re-enactments of trauma. The neurologist Robert Scaer explains that during a life-threatening experience, hormones can be released that cause short-term anesthesia and that a person can develop an addiction to these hormones. This may explain the compulsive behavior that can lead those affected to repeatedly re-enact situations similar to the traumatic experience (Scaer, 2001). The biophysicist and psychologist Peter Levine believes that compulsive reenactment of trauma contributes significantly to the escalation and repetition of violent acts (Levine, 2005).<\/li>
  3. Dissociative disorders. Scaer explains that dissociative disorders such as: multiple personality disorders, are related to the freeze reaction, with which an individual reacts in a life-threatening situation when fight or flight are not an option. It is a reaction in which the affected person separates from their own unbearable experience, to enable survival (Scaer, 2001). This separation can become a habit and the ‘no longer being present’-state interrupts the connection that the individual then has with themselves and their natural and social environment.<\/li><\/ol>

    While the symptoms listed here are mostly triggered by one-off life-threatening experiences, there are also similar but more pervasive symptoms that can be triggered by persistent stressful experiences and repeated trauma, particularly in early childhood (Kolk, 2005). In this context one speaks of a complex trauma or a developmental trauma.<\/p>

    Developmental trauma is also associated with mental illnesses such as borderline personality disorder. The medical social worker Christine Ann Lawson describes the symptoms of this disorder, which can be characterized by sudden, impulsive, psychotic reactions. She distinguishes between four different character types, two of which tend to commit violent acts. Lawson refers to case studies that show that this disorder has led to extreme acts of violence among those affected, but also among their family members (Lawson, 2004).<\/p>

    A direct causal connection between trauma and violence is particularly clear in the symptom of compulsive re-enactment of trauma and in borderline personality disorder. Dissociative behavior has a more indirect relationship to violence, as it fails to prevent violent action.<\/p>

    In summary, we can say that, illustrated by the plasticity of the brain, we find a tendency to be in flow and connected to ourselves and our surroundings. However, this connection can be interrupted by unprocessed traumatic experiences that remain stored in the body as unconscious and permanent memories. This disruption and its various effects can enable and encourage violent action.Since this violence can in turn lead to traumatizing experiences, which then allow and\/or encourage violence, a vicious circle of violence can establish itself and keep expanding.\u00a0 Lisak and Beszterczey refer to a study that examined the life stories of 43 men sentenced to death. The study shows that most of them had been subjected to multiple and often severe forms of abuse.\u00a0 This abuse was typically multigenerational and almost always linked to substance abuse. The study makes particular reference to the relationship between developmental trauma and male socialization problems or violence. (Beszterczey, 2007)<\/p>

    \"\"Trauma is about broken connections. Connection is broken with the body\/self, family, friends, community, nature, and spirit, perpetuating the downward spiral of traumatic dislocation\u2026<\/p>

    Levine 1997<\/p>

    \u00a0<\/p>

    Bibliography<\/strong><\/p>

    Beszterczey, D. L. (2007). The cycle of violence: The life histories of 43 death row inmates. Psychology of Men & Masculinity , 2<\/em>(8), 118-128.<\/p>

    Kolk, B. v. (2005). Developmental Trauma Disorder. Psychiatric Annals, 5<\/em>(35), 1-8.<\/p>

    Lawson, C. A. (2004). The Borderline Mother.<\/em> Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.<\/p>

    LeDoux, J. (1996). The Memotional Brain.<\/em> New York: Simon and Schuster Paperbacks.<\/p>

    Levine, P. (2005). Healing Trauma.<\/em> Boulder: Sounds True.<\/p>

    Levine, P. (1996) Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma. Berkeley California: North Atlantic Books<\/p>

    Scaer, R. (2001). The Neurobiology of Dissociation and Chronic Disease. Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, 1<\/em>(26), 73-91.<\/p>

    Images<\/strong><\/p>

    https:\/\/wellcomecollection.org\/articles\/W89GZBIAAN4yz1hQ<\/a><\/p>

    Dissociation – One Of The Key Symptoms Of Complex PTSD ~ Lilly Hope Lucario<\/a><\/blockquote>