Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER

POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER (PTSD) is a psychological condition, affecting people who have experienced an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury to themselves, witnessing of horrifying events and feeling unable to escape or alter them, or learning about the violent death or serious injury of a family member or close associate. PTSD can occur at any age, and symptoms usually manifest within three months but might be delayed by years. Features of PTSD include intrusive memories or thoughts about the event, efforts to avoid thinking about the event, a general numbing of emotional responsiveness, and a constantly heightened level of arousal. A diagnosis of PTSD requires that symptoms have been present for at least a month and hamper normal functioning in social and work settings. Dissociation, a sense of detachment from the reality of one's surroundings, is a way people often cope with repeated trauma. PTSD, as the explanation for "hysteria," emerged in the research of French psychologist Pierre Janet and, early in his career, that of Sigmund Freud. During World War I, PTSD, called combat neurosis, shell shock, or battle fatigue, was common in soldiers. The American psychiatrist Abram Kardiner developed this concept in his book The Traumatic Neuroses of War (1941). PTSD became an official diagnosis of the American Psychological Association in 1980, due largely to the symptoms of Vietnam veterans. The revival of the feminist movement in the late 1960s led to heightened awareness of domestic violence and abuse as a cause of PTSD.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Herman, Judith Lewis. Trauma and Recovery. Reprint, New York: Basic Books, 1997.

Livesley, W. John. The DSM-IV Personality Disorders. New York: Guilford Press, 1995.

William Ira Bennett

Lisa A. Ennis