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The role of intergenerational context in recovery from complex trauma: It's all about attachment
Author(s) -
Otu Mitch
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
the brown university child and adolescent behavior letter
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1556-7575
pISSN - 1058-1073
DOI - 10.1002/cbl.30492
Subject(s) - context (archaeology) , officer , feeling , psychology , mental health , agency (philosophy) , mood , criminology , psychiatry , psychoanalysis , sociology , social psychology , political science , law , history , social science , archaeology
Nicole is wheeled into the emergency room, flanked by four police officers and struggling mightily against the restraints that strap her to the gurney. One officer peels off to explain the situation: Nicole was brought in from her residential mental health treatment program after she became dysregulated with no apparent provocation, striking a male staff member in the face multiple times and attempting to elope. As Nicole settles in the ER, her mood rapidly shifts from angry and frustrated to sad and worried. During her physical examination, the ER staff notices multiple lacerations in various stages of healing scattered around Nicole's body. Nicole points to a specific laceration, noting that this was from her most recent suicide attempt. A few hours after being brought into the ER, Nicole is much calmer, with an almost vacant look in her eyes as she describes her early childhood to the psychiatry team. Without much feeling to her words, she recounts a history of being sexually abused from age 3–6 years old by one of her mother's boyfriends. Nicole describes the despair she felt because of her mother not believing her disclosures or protecting her, and the carousel of foster home, group home, and residential program placements after the Child Protective Services agency in her state removed her from the abusive situation she was living in .