| Some authorities say that up to 60 percent of | | | | |
| psychiatric patients, both in-patient and | | | | Her real problem had been nightly incest at |
| out-patient, report childhood histories of | | | | the hands of her biological father, the |
| physical or sexual abuse or both. This | | | | rejection by her mother as a result, and |
| estimate excludes emotional abuse and | | | | constant debasing comments by both parents |
| neglect. | | | | and both sisters all of her life. Not even |
| | | | her head-banging, a dead giveaway for sexual |
| My experience confirms that very many | | | | abuse, was noticed. |
| patients are suffering from PTSD | | | | |
| (posttraumatic stress disorder) as a direct | | | | Another woman was in treatment for thirty |
| result of childhood maltreatment. But they do | | | | years for depression and a "borderline |
| not know what their real problem is. | | | | personality disorder," ten of these years |
| | | | with the same psychiatrist. When the decade |
| Psychologists and psychiatrists know what to | | | | had passed, he remarked, "I really don't |
| expect in the way of symptoms with war | | | | think I can help you." |
| veterans: PTSD. We know as fact that the | | | | |
| experiences of war can produce in even the | | | | Never was her sadistically violent tormentor, |
| strongest individual the constellation of | | | | her husband, ever seen or even asked about. |
| symptoms that therapists should recognize as | | | | She in no way had a borderline personality |
| trauma. But for some reason, we have only | | | | disorder, but she was indeed suffering from |
| begun to make this same connection with | | | | PTSD as a result of life-long abuse. |
| people whose lives have been a "war." | | | | |
| | | | None of her therapists had been interested in |
| One woman, who spent nearly 20 years in | | | | causality. A disinterest in root cause is, in |
| therapy, first with an educational counselor, | | | | my opinion, the greatest weakness in the |
| then three psychiatrists, plus a family | | | | mental-health professions. |
| therapist, found herself with suicidal | | | | |
| feelings right up to the time she entered our | | | | We have clung so closely to the medical model |
| group for domestic abuse. | | | | that emotional disturbances of most any kind |
| | | | have historically been seen as free-standing, |
| One psychiatrist, an analyst, spent two years | | | | as though they had arisen from an infection, |
| asking her, "What do you think?" Another | | | | from a vacuum, or from nowhere. |
| psychiatrist gave her open prescriptions for | | | | |
| highly addictive drugs, and the third | | | | How this mentality has survived is a mystery, |
| psychiatrist wanted to use electroconvulsive | | | | when in any other science the principle of |
| therapy, probably the worst possible | | | | cause and effect rules. |
| treatment for trauma survivors. The family | | | | |
| therapist ordered her to draw a family | | | | Put another way, for every action there is a |
| geneology chart. | | | | reaction. Molest, torture, humiliate, or |
| | | | neglect a child severely enough, and PTSD or |
| None of the above professionals seemed | | | | similar symptoms will be the reaction. For |
| determined to find the cause of her | | | | this reason, the treatment of domestic abuse |
| suffering; they just had their favorite ways | | | | is the treatment of child abuse, and both are |
| of treating symptoms. | | | | the treatment of trauma. |