Very helpful distinction between complex resulting from chronic and early childhood trauma, and the PTSD of an acute event Amanda Robins
I think you might enjoy Pete Walker’s Complex PTSD, too.
You recommend psychotherapy, because it “can help,” and it’s hard to dispute that thesis. Nonetheless, there are many people for whom talk therapy has been unhelpful.
Besser van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score describes alternative therapies. Are you familiar?
I’ve been thinking about why the attachment experience between Mother and infant is so important, and (as you point out) the ways that the infant brain can be impacted by feelings the Mother is unconscious of.
It makes sense to me that the developmental trajectory of the infant is oriented to increase chances of survival, given the experience of the Mother it has. That is, the hypervigilance and self-criticism that the infant brain becomes so fluent with may be an adaptive mechanism that helps it to elicit from the Mother the resources it needs to survive.
What else could explain how the traumatized child experiences the changes that they do?
