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History of Trauma Research · Trauma Free Relationship

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Let's talk about the history of trauma research and how it
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impacts your relationship. Okay, so what I want to do in
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this episode, I want to talk a little bit about the history of
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trauma research, because it's really actually a very
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fascinating history and in some other videos in the future.
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What we're going to do is we're going to talk about the changes
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in research and the changes that that new clinicians as well as
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researchers were able to implement with newt.
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Tools but we got to go back first to understand just the
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reveler Revolutionary impact that the new research says have
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had. So we're actually going to go
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all the way back to the 1880s and we're going to start with a
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man named Sigmund Freud. Now trauma has probably been
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around as long as human beings have been around in some form or
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fashion but in terms of the real systemic approach or the study
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to trauma, it hasn't been going on all that.
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I'm really just about 120 years that we've sort of
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systematically started studying and researching trauma trying to
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understand it better and trying to treat it that that research
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began actually in France with a man named Martin charcot, and he
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was a neurologist. He was actually called the
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father of Neurology and he started to research a group of
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patients that were exhibiting. And certain types of symptoms
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and the symptoms could be that part of their, their body was
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locked up or they may faint or become easily overwhelmed.
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And a lot of these individuals were primarily women and so this
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particular disease, is they called it a Timeless called
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hysteria. Now, today we don't use that
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term anymore, we use conversion disorder.
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And what that means is that something psychological in HR
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was going on, that is causing physical symptoms.
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And so, we call that conversion disorder these days back in in
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1880 was was called hysteria. So, jean-martin, charcot started
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researching this. And as I said, he was the father
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of Neurology. Now, a young student came to
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study with him named Sigmund, Freud, and Sigmund.
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Freud, despite all of all of the Jokes made about about him.
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These days was actually a really shrewd Observer of human
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behavior and he was really quite Adept at using the tools of his
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time, which included, hypnosis that was the advancement of
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tools they had in those days, in terms of trying to be able to
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uncover and study hysteria. So really it began in France and
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it began with charcot who set up this laboratory and To
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systematically study a certain type of patient that had a
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certain disorder called hysteria.
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Now, the real hero in the story in my opinion is Pierre Jenay.
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Now peers and a was also a physician as well and he worked
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with charcot, but he did something extraordinary where
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charcot was trying to really understand and be descriptive
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about what was happening and And made lots of advancements in
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describing the types of symptoms and being able to classify those
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symptoms zhen. A, what he did was he took a
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phenomenological approach. Now, that just simply means that
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he was actually talking to the patient's.
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He was finding out from within their own frame of reference and
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that's kind of what phenomenological means.
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It means from within, from within their frame, remnants
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reference what was happening for them at this given, Time.
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And so Jen a really was trying to figure out, not only what was
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happening from within their own frame of reference trying to
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understand how the mind was working and was.
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And these, these psychological processes were affecting
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physical symptoms where they had already ruled out any
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physiological, any physiological root cause of the issue.
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So they knew it wasn't biological that something had to
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be getting in the way causing these symptoms.
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Eames. And so that's why then them were
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beginning to understand that will maybe the brain has a real
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impact on the body and what is that link?
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And that's kind of where a lot of trauma field started with
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with with these symptoms and and these particular patients that
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were exhibiting what they called hysteria at the time.
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So Janae was really using a phenomenological approach and
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talking to these patients trying to understand within their own
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frame. What was happening?
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Well, Just so happens that many of these patients, many, many of
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them were being sexually, molested raped at times within
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sometimes their own family. And so, the, the root cause and
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they call this pathogenic Secrets at the time, because you
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get a remember, this is during the Elizabethan era era, this is
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during a time where I mean, it was scandalous if a woman showed
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her ankle, let alone talking about anything, Around sex
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sexuality or a couple sex life or what might be happening in
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the life of the family at home. This would have been anathema.
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This would have been just off all out of bounds.
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You don't discuss this kind of thing.
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So, Janae as he was discovering, this was realizing that these
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pathogenic secrets were causing a lot of these symptoms.
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And then you enter Sigmund, Freud, and so Sigmund.
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Freud was a big fan of shark. Oh, he was a big fan of Janae as
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well. He went to study with Him and
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that he brought back. This information Sigmund.
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Freud was a Viennese physician. He was a neurologist by study
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but he didn't really want to be a neurologist.
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He didn't want to be a practicing physician in that
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sense. He was a researcher.
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He thought of himself as a researcher and his whole life
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had been leading up to trying to discover something about the
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world or human beings that had not been discovered before and
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he was using all the tools that were available.
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All to him at the time, that included cocaine for a brief
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period of time. Because I thought maybe this was
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an Avenue to open up things that were happening inside of people
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and help us discover how the brain works.
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And the mind works, as well as hypnosis was was big in his day
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as well. So he brought all this back to
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Vienna which is where he lived, and he had a colleague named
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Joseph, Brower. And Joseph was a little bit
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older than he was and Joseph was seeing Some patients as well as
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Sigmund Freud and so they began sort of talking to these
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patients. Trying to put them under
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hypnosis trying to understand how the mind worked and how
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something that was traumatic to them was creating the symptoms
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that were and what is the process that occurs in that from
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traumatic event to symptomatology that we're trying
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to understand. Now, what's interesting about
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this is that a Brower had a patient.
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Patient named Anna. Oh, and it's a very famous case
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in Psychology. And she she was not able to be a
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hypnotized as easily as some of the others.
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So at one point, Brower decided to put aside the hypnosis and
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just talk to her and they spend some sessions just talking to
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each other. Well, part of what was her
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symptom was that her arm would lock up in a certain rigid form.
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And this was part of her symptom but under hypnosis her arm could
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move freely. So there was no neurological
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damage. They were aware of that
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otherwise she never would have been able to do that.
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So something was causing this that during her waking hours,
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her arm was locked into place. We'll slowly as she and Brower.
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Built up a working relationship together.
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He was able to discover and understand her traumatic past
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and how that was causing her symptoms.
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Eames and as such slowly her symptoms begin to dissolve, she
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was able to move her arm during waking hours when she wasn't
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under hypnosis and they created this very close Bond.
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So Anna O is a very famous case. They actually know her real name
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and I've forgotten at this time, but Anna knows it was her case
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named that she had and Freud and Brower published studies on
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hysteria, which is one of the first books.
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And Freud actually wrote a paper about this and some other cases
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as well and he called it. The seduction Theory.
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Now remember, this is probably 1893.
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So we're still firmly entrenched in the Victorian era and coming
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out with a paper that these young women are being sexually
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seduced or molested or raped. And that is causing the symptoms
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would have been scandalous for the time, but he was seeing
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Freud, that is patient after patient after patient, and this
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is where his research, led him to believe that something
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traumatic was happening. And as a result it's causing
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these symptoms, it is cluster of symptoms that we call hysteria.
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Well, he had this paper all set and he was getting ready to
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publish this paper and then something happens, something
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significant happened. And that is that he found that
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some of his patients had lied. And so given the pressure, I
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think Freud was Ling a feeling about about publishing this
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paper in the era in which he exists.
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And then finding out that some of his patients had lied
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completely turned him around, he threw the papers side and then
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he started developing his whole theory about internal fantasies
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and wishes. So instead of something real
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happening to somebody outside the individual, a, Attic event
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that then greatly impacts the individual.
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He thought that everything was coming from with inside the
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individual and eventually he created a tripartite system,
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what he called, the id ego and super-ego, and I'll get to that
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here in just a moment. But this is, this is terribly
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sad for, for trauma and terribly sad for trauma researchers.
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Because by Freud, not publishing that paper and who knows?
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It probably wouldn't have been received.
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Well, This would have been a Hallmark publication and it
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could have moved us forward. Studying trauma.
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And instead it set us back, almost nearly 100 years because
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it wasn't until the late 80s 80s and into the 90s that we then
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really began to systematically study research and research
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trauma at that point in time. President h.w.
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Bush called the 90s the decade of the brain and We did that
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because we had gotten to the point where we could develop new
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tools that helped us understand what was actually happening in
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the brain. That gave rise to the mind the
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way we think and perceive that then connects to our body, any
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types of symptoms that happen. So for the first time in the 90s
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1990s we were able to see and detect that but sadly it set us
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back 100 years when Freud decided not to publish That
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paper now, I understand the pressures he had at the time, it
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probably would have been scandalous.
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Had he published that but it is really a shame and Judith Herman
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in her book trauma and Recovery, as well as best selves and
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occult. They outlined this history,
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beautifully and their two books as well.
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And so I'm not coming up with anything new here but I think
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it's a fascinating history that looks at what was the beginnings
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of the, the systematic research of trauma.
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And and by default the beginnings of talk therapy, what
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we consider Psychotherapy to this day.
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That began with with Brower and the case of Anna, oh, that has
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led us on this journey to understand what really happens
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inside a human being when they experience trauma.
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And and how does that impact their ability to feel safe
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within themselves and to create safe and secure relationships?
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Unfortunately, we've had to sort of Unfold a bumpy road for the
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last 100 years before we've been able to better understand that
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process that was happening. So so that's a little bit about
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the history and the systematic research of trauma.
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And I think it's a fascinating history.
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Again, you can read it in either one of these books.
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Judith Herman's trauma and Recovery or best Silvana Colts.
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The body keeps the score. Or because they talk about it in
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there too. And so here we are a hundred
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years later. Actually over 100 years later,
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but since the 1990s, we are much better able to understand what
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are the tools that we use now to understand trauma.
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And what's happening is, what is called the functional MRI
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machine magnetic, resonance imaging.
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Now, you probably seen pictures of them.
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It's like a big tube that they slide you in and it has these
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magnets that go round and round and around.
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Inside this tube and the functional part of it because
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we've had MRIs for a while, but it was in the 1990s that we
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created the fmri, the functional magnetic resonance imaging and
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that allowed us to track the blood flow to various parts of
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the brain under certain conditions.
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So for example we could slide somebody into the tube, they are
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able to hold or she be here in their ear.
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We can talk to them in there and we might I put them through a
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series of tests while that magnet is going around and we're
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measuring the blood flow in the brain.
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That tells us what areas of the brain are lighting up under
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these certain conditions. So one of the great research
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study that happened was with a group of patients that were
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insecurely attached. And so they were going into the
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MRI machine and they Or asked to think of a traumatic event that
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occurred. And when they did, we could see
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all the kinds of blood flow that went on in their brain.
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We could see how the the amygdala and the limbic system
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which is the emotional and and the the fear-based part of the
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brain would light up and we could see the medial prefrontal
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cortex, which is the reasoning rational part of the brain
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completely go. Oh, dark or almost completely go
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dark. And so what this tells us is
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that people that have trauma. We can now measure that it's
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when they get triggered by it, could be a sound, could be a
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situation. It could just be a feeling that
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has them reimagine, what happened it is as if they are
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reliving that trauma. It is not something that
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happened in the past, it is something that is currently
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still happening to them. So those are the types of
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studies. Is that we've been able to
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really understand much more deeply about what's happening
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with trauma and get a much better grip on understanding.
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How do we actually treat trauma? One of the Hallmarks of
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treatment is to be able to help the trauma Survivor understand.
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And I'm not talking about necessarily cognitively.
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I'm talking about being able to create an experience that's from
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the bottom up the body up to the limbic system.
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And then Up to the prefrontal cortex, that what happened to
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them is in the past and not currently happening to them now,
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and that's one of the outcomes of trauma treatment is being
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able to understand that. That was then this is now you
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can distinguish between the two and you can feel safe in your
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relationship in the here. And now so we've come a long way
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since the 1880s and understanding trauma.
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Symptoms, understanding how to treat trauma.
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And in future videos, I'll go through more studies like that,
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but I thought this would be an interesting one just kind of
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laying out exactly what happens and what has happened over the
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last 120, 130 years, that that we've arrived to where we are
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today, which is light years away from where we were.
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We've done so many incredible things.
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In terms of being able to understand how the brain works,
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how it gives rise to. Two thoughts and feelings and
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how it impacts the body and we see those as very much connected
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the mind, the brain and the body are very much connected.
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They are not separate. Only are they separate when
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somebody has suffered trauma and then cuts off or just Associates
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their feelings and their bodies from their mental processes from
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their thinking. That's that's the only way it's
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separated. Otherwise, And that is a
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protection maneuver. It's a strategy.
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The person used to survive and get through.
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What they what they what they had to adapt to or the horrific
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event that occurred and so that is a survival strategy when we
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cut off our our, our our feelings, and our mind from our
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body. That's because we've moved into
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a place of protection and it's a survival strategy that helps us
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get by Otherwise the sensations and feelings that get held.
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In our body can be absolutely overwhelming and that's part of
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why the person experiences that what happened then is now still
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happening to me in this woman. So thanks for listening and stay
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tuned for our next episode.