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Defining
'Trauma'
The implicit definition in DSM-IV is
when a person "witnessed, or was
confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened
death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self
or others; the person's response involved intense fear, helplessness,
or horror.
Note: In children, this
may be expressed instead by disorganized or agitated behavior".
An important
subtext, I think, is that this constitutes the experience as perceived
by the person, even though to an
"objective outsider" it may not have appeared as threatening.
I think it is also
possible to stretch it to include situations in which there may not
have been an explicit fear of physical harm, but there may have been an
underlying fear of loss of integrity of Self or loss of existence in an
existential way, such as extreme humiliation or abandonment by a
caretaker.
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