Function of Pain and Blocking Pain

Dissociation during trauma and traumatic amnesia or repression are commonly understood to be psychological defences against psychological pain …in an evolutionary or functional sense, it would not be adaptive to have an animal spontaneously experience pain, either physical or psychological, and then go to great lengths to get rid of the pain, merely to be rid of it. Instead, it is parsimonious to assume that pain exists to motivate behavior changes. At times, psychic pain may be used as a metric by the mind in order to invoke defences, but the functional utility of defences is not for the end result of merely avoiding pain. There must be, at least in an evolutionary sense, a survival advantage in invoking the numbing of pain and simultaneously blocking information. Freyd, Jennifer J. (1994 ).

The blockage of pain to survive ( or blockage of information ) is common outside of cases involving child abuse. This mental process is frequently explained as dissociation.

Betrayal trauma does not directly address the issue of memory veracity. Instead, it asks the fundamental question, if a child is abused and betrayed, what would we expect to happen to the information about that abuse and betrayal. Freyd Jennifer J. (1994 ).

Betrayal trauma posits that there would be information blockage under certain conditions and that this information blockage will create various types of traumatic amnesia that can be understood in terms of cognitive mechanisms. Freyd Jennifer J. (1994 ).

Betrayal trauma is offered as a theory of psychogenic amnesia for childhood abuse. The theory may help to make more understandable some of the puzzling phenomena of forgetting and later remembering abuse. Freyd Jennifer J. ( 1994 ).

Explicit threats and demands for silence from the abuser, statements such as, if you tell I’ll kill you, or I’ll kill your mother, would hypothetically increase the survival advantages of forgetting the betrayal in order to maintain critical attachment probability of amnesia. Freyd, Jennifer J. ( 1994 ).

Nelson’s model of memory development emphasizing talk between children and adults is what structures a child’s experience and becomes internalized in the child’s mental representations and subsequent recall of events, has been reported in additional research ( Fivush, R. 1991 ), The Social Construction of Personal Narratives.

There is existing documentation of amnesia and memory recovery for verified traumas. So we can dismiss the critics that argue against the legitimacy of delayed memories. ( e.g. Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Porter 1993 , Terr  1994, Van der Kolk 1987, Williams  1992 ). Freyd, (1998 ) argues that memory accuracy and memory accessibility are conceptually independent of one another. An inaccurate memory could be continuously available to someone, and an accurate memory could be unavailable for a period of time. Freyd, ( 2007 ).

Motivated Forgetting and Memory Inhibition

Experimental psychologists have long been interested in motivated and adaptive forgetting ( Freud,1923; Waldfogel, 1948; Henderson, 1985;  Kihlstrom and Harackiewicz, 1982; Bjork and Bjork, 1988, 1992; Geiselman, Bjork & Fishman, 1983 ).

Anderson and his colleagues have demonstrated the existence of mechanisms that cause direct inhibition of previously well-encoded material. These laboratory effects of forgetting show that even well-encoded materials may be forgotten under controlled conditions. The mechanisms of forgetting in these cases may be related to some kinds of amnesias in which a person suddenly forgets his own history, often following a traumatic event.

Misremembering

Research that has focused on misremembering memory errors has shown that parent-child talk about present and past life events affects how children remember these events. Nelson K. (1993b.). Towards the Theory of the Development of Autobiographical Memory, Tesler M. and  Nelson K. ( 1994 ),  Making  Memories, the Influence  of  Joint Encoding on Later Recall by Young Children by young children.

Non-Offender Family Members

Like the victim, non-offending others in family systems where abuse occurs may experience similar pressure to remain unaware, particularly non-offending parents. Motivated forgetting and misremembering perspectives from betrayal trauma theory ( DePrince P. Anna, et al., 2012 ).

Betrayal Trauma, and Dissociation

Dissociation, a disintegration of thoughts, emotions, physiological sensations and behaviors that are normally integrated ( Moskowitz, Schafer and Dorahy, 2009 ). There’s  a common response to psychological trauma (  Carlson,  Dalenberg  and McDade-Montez, 2012;  Dalenberg and Carlson, 2012). In betrayal trauma, for dissociation to occur, it is not necessary for the traumatic information to be entirely blocked from entering the nervous system. Instead, the information needs to be blocked from entering mechanisms that control attachment behavior. In some cases this may be achieved by dissociating affective information from declarative or episodic knowledge. This blockage may depend on mechanisms of selective attention in which information can be brought from consciousness despite some degree of unconscious processing.Multiple studies have linked dissociation and betrayal trauma ( Chu, J.A. & Dill DL 1990. Dissociative symptoms in relation to childhood physical and sexual abuse; Plattner B, Silverman MA,, Redlich AD, Carrion VG, Feucht M, Friedrich MH, et al.2003. Pathways to Disassociation: Intrafamilial versus Extrafamilial Trauma in Juvenile Delinquents; Freyd, JJ, Kleist B, and Allard, CB, 2005. Betrayal Trauma: Relationship to psychological distress and a written disclosure intervention; Goldsmith R., Freyd J.J. and DePrince A.P. in PresS. Betrayal Trauma, Associations with Psychological and Physical Symptoms in Young Adults. DePrince A.P. 2005; Social Cognition and Re-victimization Risk; DePrince, Chu, and Pineda, 2011. Links between specific post-trauma appraisals and three forms of trauma related distress; Mann, B.J. and Sanders S. 1994. Child Dissociation and the Family Context; Ogawa, J.R., Sroufe, L.A., Winefield S., Carlson, B.A. and Egeland B. 1997. Development and the Fragmented Self, Longitudinal Study of Dissociative Symptomatology in a Non-Clinical Sample (  see. Betrayal Trauma ); Relational Models of Harm and Healing ( Birrell, J. Pamela & Freyd, J.J. 2006 ).

Freyd and her colleagues have repeatedly documented links between high levels of dissociation and alterations in basic cognitive processing in the lab, ( e.g. Freyd, J.J. 1998 ). Science in the Memory Debate ( DePrince, A.P. and Freud, J.J. 2001 ); Memory and Dissociative Tendencies; The Roles of Attentional Context and Word Meaning in text and word meaning in a directed, forgetting task (  DePrince, A.P and Freyd, JJ, 2004 ); Forgetting trauma stimuli ( DePrince, A.P., Freyd, J.J,, and Malley, 2007 ). A replication by another name ( a response to Deviilly et al., 2007 ).

The oldest, most widely accepted theory suggesting an adaptive value of dissociation is one that assumes dissociation serves as a method of defence against potentially disruptive, overwhelming, affective associated with trauma ( Freud 1926-1959 ).

Given links between dissociation and familial abuse, it has been reasonable to evaluate the role that dissociation may play in relation to unawareness and betrayal. In his seminal book on the development of dissociation, Putnam, ( 1997 ), notes that the relationship to the perpetrator emerged as a powerful predictor of pertinent outcome measures. Putnam talks at great length about the interactions of the family environment and developmental processes in the development of dissociation.

Verbal Cues, Language, and meaning in Selective Attention

Brown, I., ( 1990 ), suggests that when traumatic events are repressed, the mind halts the usual processing that continues over time. Brown’s ( 1990 ) suggestion is consistent with Nelson’s ( 1993 ) proposal that autobiographical memory depends upon a time-consuming encoding process consistent with the neurophysiological process, finding that the hippocampus has a specific time-dependent role in integrating explicit memories ( Squire, 1992 ). This research suggests this time-consuming function of the hippocampus is inhibited after betrayal traumas producing traumatic amnesia that leaves intact implicit memories for the event.

Some researchers claim child sexual abuse leads to greater disruption than physical and emotional abuse in association with amnesia ( Elliot DM 1997, Traumatic events prevalence and delayed recall in the general population ).

Divided Control Structures and Automatic Processing

Different mental modules can simultaneously control behavior. As when we drive a car and engage in a conversation, this fact about human behavior can be understood in terms of Hilgard’s ( 1986 ) notion of divided control or neo-dissociationism. Hilgard, E.R.,( 1986 ), Divided  consciousness, multiple  controls  in human thought and action. This sort of dissociation is in no way pathological.

In the study of implicit memory and coding, numerous experimental results in cognitive psychology offer strong support for multiple mental codes and also for corresponding dissociations of the neural substrates. A single real-world event can be perceived and represented by multiple mental mechanisms and the information can be then repressed in multiple codes ( Freyd, J. J. 1994 ). The multiplicity of mental modules, automatic processing, and divided control structures occur for social information processing, too.

Multiple other factors are predicted to contribute to the cognitive feasibility of blocking information about the abuse, ( e.g. alternative realities available, isolation during abuse, young age at onset of abuse, alternative reality defining statements by caregivers, the absence of any socially shared explicit discussion of the abusive events,  causing a failure of information entry into the child’s explicit autobiographical memory.  Nelson, (1993 ).

Additionally, a history of betrayal trauma can affect future relationships. People who have experienced high betrayal trauma in childhood report less trust in others than those who were not victimized ( Gobin and Freyd, 2014 ). Moreover, mothers’ history of childhood betrayal trauma and adult re-victimization is associated with their children’s victimization ( Hulette, Kachler and Freyd, 2011 ). Therefore, the effects of betrayal trauma can be long-lasting and negatively affect individuals’ future relationships as well as their mental, physical and behavioral health ( Gobin, Robin L. and Jennifer J. Freyd, 2014, The Impact of Betrayal Trauma on the Tendency to Trust );  Huletite, Marie C. Laura A. Kachler & Freyd, 2011, Intergenerational Associations Between Trauma and Dissociation ).

This sort of blockage could be very effective in producing amnesia for conscious episodic memories coupled with intact sensory and affective memories ( Brown, 1990; Nelson, 1993; Squire, 1992 ).

One could hypothesize that this lack of integration could also lead to the storage of essentially unprocessed information so that when memories are later recovered, they are initially experienced as immediate events or flashbacks ( Siegel 1992. Lacking episodic interpretation ).

Freyd ( 1994 ) has shown,” cognitive science currently informs us about memory and attention. Thus we can reject at least one of the claims made by some critics of the legitimacy of delayed memories. Namely, that memory repression for sexual abuse is impossible or implausible.”

The research literature since Herman Ebbinghaus, (1885 ), it’s been said that memory from consciousness declines over time. Regardless of motive, successful repression is not necessary to experience amnesia. It has also been shown that retrieval efforts can at least partially reverse the amnesia trend of memory and produce hypermnesia ( unusually power or enhancement of memory, typically under abnormal conditions such as trauma ). Thus, both defensive repression, ( repression used to avoid upsetting memories with consequent amnesia ) and the recovery of such repressed memories should be obvious and universally accepted in scientific psychology ( Erdely, M.H. 2010, The Ups and Downs of Memory ).

Betrayal trauma theory may have important connections to the growing literature on complex trauma responses such as complex PTSD. Complex PTSD, first conceptualized by Herman, (1992 ), emphasizes the damage to multiple systems caused by chronic interpersonal traumas that occur during development, e.g. affect and impulse regulation, attention and consciousness, self-perception, relations with others, somatic functioning, and systems of meaning ( Dorahy et al. 2009; Ford 1999, Herman 1992;  Taylor et al. 2006 ).

Exposure to betrayal trauma is linked to many costly outcomes including: dissociation; hallucinations; PTSD; self-harm; and poor physical health Freyd, n.d. )

Additionally, a history of betrayal trauma can affect future relationships. People who have experienced high betrayal trauma in childhood report less trust in others than those who were not victimized ( Gobin and Freyd, 2014. ) Moreover, mother’s history of childhood betrayal trauma and adult re-victimization is associated with their children’s victimization ( Hulette, Katchler and Freyd, 2011 ).

Empirical findings also demonstrate a relationship between dissociation and the ability to disconnect from awareness of a trauma-relevant stimuli ( DePrince & Freyd, 2004 ).

Betrayal Trauma and Shame

An alternative explanation for the shame-dissociation relationship comes from betrayal trauma theory, Freyd (1996 ). According to this theory, shame and dissociation could both function to protect a needed relationship in the short run. Dramatic events high in betrayal trauma, HBT, are those characterized by violation of trust by someone who is trusted or dependent on for survival, whereas low betrayal traumas, LBTs, are no less severe but do not involve violation of trust.

Betrayal trauma theory posits that high betrayal trauma should lead to dissociation of some elements of the abuse from awareness, such that the victim’s unawareness protects the needed relationship with the perpetrator. Empirical findings demonstrate that greater lifetime experience of high betrayal trauma is related to increased levels of dissociation ( Freyd, Klest and Allard, 2005; Goldsmith, Freyd and DePrince, 2012; Hulette et al., 2008 ). Empirical findings also demonstrate a relationship between dissociation and the ability to disconnect from awareness of trauma, relevant stimuli such that in a divided attention task, high dissociators have impaired memory for words associated with trauma but not for neutral words (  DePrince and Freyd 2004 )

It is possible that among some trauma survivors, trauma memories might be more associated with the emotion of shame than the emotion of fear. Using a shame memory priming paradigm, Matos and Pinto-Gouvera, ( 2010 ) demonstrated that memories of early experiences of shame could have similar properties to traumatic memories such as intrusions, hyperarousal, and dissociation. An additional study provides empirical support for this theory of traumatic shame-based memories, Robinaugh & McNally, ( 2010 ).

In support of a betrayal trauma conceptualization of the function of shame, in a previous study we found that high betrayal trauma survivors, but not low betrayal trauma survivors, experienced an increase in both dissociation and shame in response to interpersonal threat, whereas low betrayal trauma, but not high betrayal trauma survivors experiences an increase in fear, but not shame or dissociation, in response to non-interpersonal threat ( Platt and Freyd, 2015 ). These findings support the proposition that shame and dissociation both have a special relationship with high betrayal trauma. We wonder whether, rather than dissociation serving as a defence against shame, shame and dissociation might tend to co-occur because they both serve as mechanisms of betrayal blindness ( Freyd, 1996) protecting the relationship while the abuse is ongoing, but lingering after the abuse ends and leading to psychological, physical and relational health problems in the long run  ( Covert, Tangney, Maddux and Heleno, 2003; Dickerson, Gruenwald and Kemeny, 2009;  La Scala, Diaper Rink and Thuris, 2002 ). In particular, dissociation has been hypothesized to protect against the shame that often co-occurs with trauma ( Kaufman 1989; H.B. Lewis 1971; Nathanson 1992 ).

Empirically, shame and dissociation have been shown to be associated with each other. In a study of female psychiatric patients, Talbert, Talbert and Tu, ( 2004 ), found that greater shame-proneness was associated with higher levels of dissociation. Irwin, ( 1998 ), also found a positive correlation between shame and dissociation in the sample of college students. Thompson and Jaque, ( 2013 ), found an association between self-reports of dissociation and shame in a non-clinical sample of dancers and athletes.

Shame and Dissociation Co-Occur in Trauma Survivors

Bypass shame theory posits that dissociation reduces pain by interrupting shame. We tested this theory by inducing dissociation. The hypothesis that higher shame would predict larger increases in dissociation following the induction was marginally supported. However, in contrast to bypassed shame theory, shame scores increased rather than decreased following the induction. An alternative theory, betrayal trauma theory ( BBT ), ( Freyd, 1994 ) proposes that dissociation reduces awareness of betrayal to protect a needed relationship. Shame might also serve this function. We aimed to replicate prior research indicating traumas higher in betrayal, high betrayal trauma would relate to higher shame was supported. The results suggest that other explanations than bypassed shame theory, such as betrayal trauma theory, might better account for the relationship between shame and dissociation in trauma survivors.

According to betrayal trauma theory, in the case of dissociation, the victim attends to love and positive connection in the relationship while keeping the abuse out of awareness. In the case of shame, the victim might attribute his or her negative emotions to his or her own perceived flaws and inadequacies rather than recognizing the harm caused by a trusted person, parent ( Platt and Freyd, 2012 ).

There are no direct data relating to whether dissociation allows a person to bypass or avoid painful feelings of shame ( Gilbert, P., & Proctor, S. 2006, Compassionate mind training for people with high shame and self-criticism: Overview and pilot study of a group therapy approach ).

Family Betrayal

Any family actions or interactions that serve to enabling conditions for child abuse or as harmful responses to abuse and its effects ( Briana C, Delker, et al 2018 ). Research has reported the almost 75% of adult victims of child abuse experienced at least one form of family betrayal. In addition, family betrayal was associated with dissociation and symptoms of PTSD. ( Family betrayal can negatively affect the healing process, DePrince,  P. et al. 2012 ).

Cultural Betrayal Trauma

Institutional Betrayal

The concept of institutional betrayal refers to actions or inactions occurring within organizations in which appropriate steps are not taken to prevent or address abuse, Smith and Freyd, 2014. institutional actors are implicated. Moreover, the harm perpetrated by individual institutional actors is compounded by their identification with and roles in institutions ( Smith and Freyd, 2014 ). For instance, a friend’s response to disclosure of abuse that includes victim blaming is harmful. However, a therapist who displays such a response as doing so is a mental health care professional. Thus, implicit in this behavior is institutional betrayal because the therapist is an institutional actor in the mental health care system.

Research has shown that institutional betrayal exacerbates mental, physical snd behavioral health outcomes of abuse.( Smith and Freyd, 2014, Freyd, n.d. )Thus, victims of incest, are affected by various institutions, such ass the mental health care system, hospitals, police departments, and the judicial system.

Treatment of Trauma Memories

Brief Betrayal Trauma Survey