Betrayal Trauma website

[Guest guest]

Here is an excerpt from the website Freyd maintains about Betrayal

Trauma Theory that has further articles and info:

" Betrayal trauma theory posits that there is a social utility in remaining

unaware of abuse when the perpetrator is a caregiver (Freyd, 1994, 1996). The

theory draws on studies of social contracts (e.g., Cosmides, 1989) to explain

why and how humans are excellent at detecting betrayals; however, Freyd argues

that under some circumstances detecting betrayals may be counter-productive to

survival. Specifically, in cases where a victim is dependent on a caregiver,

survival may require that she/he remain unaware of the betrayal. In the case of

childhood sexual abuse, a child who is aware that her/his parent is being

abusive may withdraw from the relationship (e.g., emotionally or in terms of

proximity). For a child who depends on a caregiver for basic survival,

withdrawing may actually be at odds with ultimate survival goals, particularly

when the caregiver responds to withdrawal by further reducing caregiving or

increasing violence. In such cases, the child's survival would be better ensured

by being blind to the betrayal and isolating the knowledge of the event, thus

remaining engaged with the caregiver.

The traditional assumption in trauma research has been that fear is at the core

of responses to trauma. Freyd (2001) notes that traumatic events differ

orthogonally in degree of fear and betrayal, depending on the context and

characteristics of the event. (see Figure 1). Research suggests that the

distinction between fear and betrayal may be important to posttraumatic

outcomes. For example, DePrince (2001) found that self-reported betrayal

predicted PTSD and dissociative symptoms above and beyond self-reported fear in

a community sample of individuals who reported a history of childhood sexual

abuse. "

Freyd theorizes that " memory for trauma depends on the victim-perpetrator

relationship " --furthermore:

" Betrayal trauma theory predicts that unawareness and forgetting of abuse will

be higher when the relationship between perpetrator and victim involves

closeness, trust, and/or caregiving. It is in these cases that the potential for

a conflict between need to stay in the relationship and awareness of betrayal is

greatest, and thus where we should see the greatest amount of forgetting or

memory impairment. " Freyd also discusses the theory of " betrayal blindness " .

The website goes into much more detail about the different ways that

memory can be continuous or disrupted--and cites a fascinating sounding study

that showed how " high dissociators " (those who have a serious trauma history)

tend to block out trauma-related words like " rape " and recall neutral words

instead.Which ties into learning from childhood to habitually block out

distressing memory recall.

Link to Freyd's website:

http://dynamic.uoregon.edu/~jjf/defineBT.html

---

[Guest guest]

Thanks for the info and links to this, ! This interests me because I'm

one of those KOs that does have vivid recall of many incidents of emotional

and/or physical by my nada, but the way I coped (apparently) was to shut off my

emotions about it. I've read that the two most common ways to deal with trauma

by an abusive parent are to either forget the incident(s) altogether, or to

become dissociated from the feelings about it: shutting off access to the fear,

grief, shame, defectiveness, unworthiness to be loved, etc.

This new material is making me formulate a new theory about my own situation.

The Freyd research says that when a child is sexually abused/betrayed by a

parent on whom she or he is dependent for basic survival, that's when complete

amnesia of the abuse is most likely to happen.

The most traumatic abuse incident I recall in vivid detail was of a sexual

nature, my nada perpetrated it, and yet I can remember it clearly. So my theory

is that possibly *I already felt emotionally detached* from my mother. In an

earlier memory of fear and trauma, my preschool brain decided that it was " the

woman " who was hurting and terrifying me, not " my mommy. "

Maybe that's it, because although I clearly remember that my own mother became

enraged at me and wanted to completely shame and humiliate me and chose that way

to do it, and I remember as though in slow motion the sickening chain of events

and the details, and I can hear the utter contempt/hatred for me in her voice

*and I can hear myself screaming*, I don't feel the feelings/emotions associated

with the event; its more like watching it happen through my child-eyes, but

not... being there. Somehow.

Anyway, thanks, I will be reading that material and visiting that website for

sure.

-Annie

Thanks again for the excerpts and links.

-Annie

>

> Here is an excerpt from the website Freyd maintains about Betrayal

Trauma Theory that has further articles and info:

>

>

> " Betrayal trauma theory posits that there is a social utility in remaining

unaware of abuse when the perpetrator is a caregiver (Freyd, 1994, 1996). The

theory draws on studies of social contracts (e.g., Cosmides, 1989) to explain

why and how humans are excellent at detecting betrayals; however, Freyd argues

that under some circumstances detecting betrayals may be counter-productive to

survival. Specifically, in cases where a victim is dependent on a caregiver,

survival may require that she/he remain unaware of the betrayal. In the case of

childhood sexual abuse, a child who is aware that her/his parent is being

abusive may withdraw from the relationship (e.g., emotionally or in terms of

proximity). For a child who depends on a caregiver for basic survival,

withdrawing may actually be at odds with ultimate survival goals, particularly

when the caregiver responds to withdrawal by further reducing caregiving or

increasing violence. In such cases, the child's survival would be better ensured

by being blind to the betrayal and isolating the knowledge of the event, thus

remaining engaged with the caregiver.

> The traditional assumption in trauma research has been that fear is at the

core of responses to trauma. Freyd (2001) notes that traumatic events differ

orthogonally in degree of fear and betrayal, depending on the context and

characteristics of the event. (see Figure 1). Research suggests that the

distinction between fear and betrayal may be important to posttraumatic

outcomes. For example, DePrince (2001) found that self-reported betrayal

predicted PTSD and dissociative symptoms above and beyond self-reported fear in

a community sample of individuals who reported a history of childhood sexual

abuse. "

>

> Freyd theorizes that " memory for trauma depends on the

victim-perpetrator relationship " --furthermore:

>

> " Betrayal trauma theory predicts that unawareness and forgetting of abuse will

be higher when the relationship between perpetrator and victim involves

closeness, trust, and/or caregiving. It is in these cases that the potential for

a conflict between need to stay in the relationship and awareness of betrayal is

greatest, and thus where we should see the greatest amount of forgetting or

memory impairment. " Freyd also discusses the theory of " betrayal blindness " .

>

> The website goes into much more detail about the different ways that

memory can be continuous or disrupted--and cites a fascinating sounding study

that showed how " high dissociators " (those who have a serious trauma history)

tend to block out trauma-related words like " rape " and recall neutral words

instead.Which ties into learning from childhood to habitually block out

distressing memory recall.

>

> Link to Freyd's website:

> http://dynamic.uoregon.edu/~jjf/defineBT.html

>

>

> ---

>