An exploration of all Freud's writings on trauma from 1885 is proposed. Trauma, a central concept in his first works, always kept a place in his theory. He conceived it as a consequence of an external perception leading to a sudden affect which cannot be mastered by the psyche.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPsychological trauma primarily affects children and adolescents; it mostly results from physical and sexual maltreatment. In the Medico-Judicial Unit Center for Sexual Violence Victims in Tours, France, which I joined in 1992 for research and to give treatment, underage patients represented about three-quarters of patients. At the same time, a national survey was conducted in collaboration with Marie Choquet's "Adolescent Health" group (INSERM), which targeted several thousand adolescents representing the general population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA potentially traumatic event (PTE) contributes to trauma through its frequency, conditional probability of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and experience of other PTEs. A cross-sectional survey was conducted, enrolling 21,425 adults nationally representative of six European countries. Using the WHO-Composite International Diagnostic Interview, 8,797 were interviewed on 28 PTEs and PTSD.
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