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Trauma narratives in posttraumatic stress disorder: A review *
Author(s) -
O'Kearney Richard,
Perrott Kelly
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of traumatic stress
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.259
H-Index - 134
eISSN - 1573-6598
pISSN - 0894-9867
DOI - 10.1002/jts.20099
Subject(s) - narrative , psychology , posttraumatic stress , confusion , clinical psychology , perception , autobiographical memory , psychiatry , cognition , psychoanalysis , linguistics , neuroscience , philosophy
Nineteen empirical studies providing evidence about the nature of trauma narratives in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were reviewed. Selected studies had participants with a diagnosis of PTSD or with PTSD symptoms. The studies used either linguistic indices or participants' rating of narrative quality. There was evidence of a relationship between PTSD specific pathology and the occurrence of sensory/perceptual references and disturbed temporal aspects. Evidence for PTSD‐related narrative fragmentation was inconclusive, and there were little data about specific self‐referential content. Poor validity and confusion of content and syntactic aspects of narrative organization limited the data on the organization of PTSD narratives. Approaches that address some of these limitations and allow narrative‐based evaluation of memory for trauma in PTSD are outlined.