Judith Herman’s Complex Trauma Definition

Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

•    A history of subjection to totalitarian control over a prolonged period ( months to years ).  Examples include hostages, prisoners of war, concentration-camp survivors, and survivors of some religious cults.  Examples also include those subjected to domestic battering, childhood physical or sexual abuse, and organized sexual exploitation.
•  Alterations in affect regulation, including

• Persistent dysphoria
• Chronic suicidal preoccupation
• Self-injury
• Explosive or extremely inhibited anger ( may alternate )
• Compulsive or extremely inhibited sexuality ( may alternate )

•  Alterations in consciousness, including

• Amnesia or hyperamnesia for traumatic events
• Transient dissociative episodes
• Depersonalization/derealisation
• Reliving experiences, either in the form of intrusive PTSD symptoms or in the form of ruminative preoccupation.

•  Alterations in self-perception, including

• Sense of helplessness or paralysis of initiative
• Shame, guilt, and self-blame
• Sense of defilement or stigma
• Sense of complete difference from others ( may include sense of specialness, utter aloneness, belief no other person can understand, or nonhuman identity )

• Alterations in perception of perpetrator, including

• Preoccupation with relationship with perpetrator (includes preoccupation with revenge).
• Acceptance of belief system or rationalizations of perpetrator

•  Alterations in relations with others, including

• Isolation and withdrawal
• Disruption in intimate relationships
• Repeated search for rescuer ( may alternate with isolation and withdrawal)
• Persistent distrust
• Repeated failures of self-protection

•  Alterations in systems of meaning

• Loss of sustaining faith
• Sense of hopelessness and despair

Copied from Trauma and Recovery: The aftermath of violence – from domestic abuse to political terror by Judith Herman