Psychological trauma is configured as a set of experiences of which it is difficult to make sense. Exposure to hazardous conditions, however, does not necessarily imply a traumatic evolution. Psychological trauma is manifested when the situation cannot be addressed in such a way as to give a meaning to the event and maintain the danger under control. This may occur during a specific, sudden and intense episode, or, cumulatively, as a result of daily and constant experiences. The trauma affects the sense of self, as well as the sense that each of us gives to our existence. This semantic assignment process engages human beings for life and is different in childhood, adolescence and adulthood. The trauma can therefore be considered as a meeting between a demanding event, sometimes painful, and a mind, that has different possibilities to process it. It constitutes one of the most potent activators of emotions, and the body reacts as a sounding board. Research has amply demonstrated the physical consequences of traumatic experiences: abnormal illness behaviors (hypochondria, somatization disorders, functional syndromes), cardiovascular, metabolic or endocrine diseases, cancer and early death. In the past, in a psychoanalytic perspective, the bodily responses to trauma have been studied primarily as a symbolic expression of emotions and fantasies excluded from the mind, as in the case of hysterical conversion symptoms. Today, studies on attachment and mentalization, polyvagal theory and recent neuroscientific acquisitions have profoundly changed the understanding of the mechanisms that govern the emotion-body connection. We know that the chaotic emotional states resulting from trauma involve a dysregulation of emotions and arousal, with a somatoform dissociation which makes the individual more vulnerable to the effects of any subsequent dis-integrative trauma. The symposium will address these issues through theoretical reflections and presenting research data.

Wnen the body feels the pinch. Somatizations of trauma.

BALDONI, FRANCO
2016

Abstract

Psychological trauma is configured as a set of experiences of which it is difficult to make sense. Exposure to hazardous conditions, however, does not necessarily imply a traumatic evolution. Psychological trauma is manifested when the situation cannot be addressed in such a way as to give a meaning to the event and maintain the danger under control. This may occur during a specific, sudden and intense episode, or, cumulatively, as a result of daily and constant experiences. The trauma affects the sense of self, as well as the sense that each of us gives to our existence. This semantic assignment process engages human beings for life and is different in childhood, adolescence and adulthood. The trauma can therefore be considered as a meeting between a demanding event, sometimes painful, and a mind, that has different possibilities to process it. It constitutes one of the most potent activators of emotions, and the body reacts as a sounding board. Research has amply demonstrated the physical consequences of traumatic experiences: abnormal illness behaviors (hypochondria, somatization disorders, functional syndromes), cardiovascular, metabolic or endocrine diseases, cancer and early death. In the past, in a psychoanalytic perspective, the bodily responses to trauma have been studied primarily as a symbolic expression of emotions and fantasies excluded from the mind, as in the case of hysterical conversion symptoms. Today, studies on attachment and mentalization, polyvagal theory and recent neuroscientific acquisitions have profoundly changed the understanding of the mechanisms that govern the emotion-body connection. We know that the chaotic emotional states resulting from trauma involve a dysregulation of emotions and arousal, with a somatoform dissociation which makes the individual more vulnerable to the effects of any subsequent dis-integrative trauma. The symposium will address these issues through theoretical reflections and presenting research data.
2016
Donatella Cavanna; Franco Baldoni
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11585/591405
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