Silenced by Betrayal: The Path from Childhood Trauma to Diminished Sexual Communication in Adulthood

Betrayal traumas (Freyd, 1996), abuses that violate trust or dependency, predict numerous negative outcomes, including dissociation and revictimization (DePrince & Freyd, 2007; Gobin & Freyd, 2009; Goldsmith, Freyd, & DePrince, 2012). No previous empirical research examines the relation between betrayal and sexual health, including dissociation during sex. This article addresses this gap with 2 studies, which provide support for a multiple mediation model where high betrayal in childhood predicts worsened sexual communication in adulthood through trait dissociation and sexual dissociation in serial. In both studies, the direct path between betrayal and sexual communication was nonsignificant; only when accounting for trait dissociation overall and sexual dissociation in particular does childhood betrayal predict diminished communication with sex partners in adulthood.     

Trust and Betrayal from a Husserlian Standpoint

Abstract

This paper provides an interpretation of trust and betrayal within political communities from the perspective of Husserl’s concept of social communities. I situate the paper amidst Margaret Gilbert’s theory of political obligations, arguing that at least one outside conception of trust fills a gap left in her theory. More specifically, I argue for the supplementary fit that Karen Jones’s conception of trust understood as ‘basal security’ provides for Gilbert. From there, I tie this conception of trust and betrayal to Husserl’s notions of ‘original belief’ and socio-cultural crisis. There is thereby a phenomenological elucidation of features within the social world that allow such crises to occur in the first place.     

Insult,then Injury: Interpersonal and Institutional Betrayal Linked to Health and Dissociation

Psychological trauma, particularly trauma involving betrayal, has been linked to health problems. Betrayal trauma is also characterized by dissociation and difficulty remembering as victims face conflicting demands presented by a harmful but important relationship. Institutional betrayal is related to, but distinct from, interpersonal betrayal and in need of research on its unique effects. The current study has two related goals. First, the association between institutional betrayal and health problems is examined. Second, the previously documented association between institutional betrayal and dissociative symptoms is re-examined, while controlling for betrayal trauma. This study utilizes a sample of 302 college students (70% female, 63% Caucasian) who reported their trauma history (Brief Betrayal Trauma Survey), institutional betrayal history (Institutional Betrayal Questionnaire), distress related to health problems (Patient Health Questionnaire), and dissociative symptoms (Wessex Dissociation Scale). We found that institutional betrayal is uniquely associated with both health problems and dissociative symptoms even when controlling for betrayal trauma exposure. Findings add to the understanding of how institutional betrayal is uniquely associated to trauma-related physical and mental health outcomes. Small effect sizes, likely due to low base rates of health problems and dissociative symptoms in college students, and problems generalizing these results to clinical samples are discussed.     

Death,Betrayal, and a Guardian Angel

A familiar Epicurean argument for the conclusion that death (i.e., being dead) is not bad for those who die goes like this. The dead cannot experience anything, including being dead and its effects. But something is bad for an individual only if that person can experience it or its effects. Therefore, death is not bad for those who die. In this article, I consider several alleged counterexamples to this argument's second premise, along with some responses to them. The responses are not entirely without merit, as we will see. However, I contend that even if none of the cases cited are straightforward counterexamples to the Epicurean premise, they can be used to challenge it indirectly. I conclude that this familiar Epicurean argument is unsound.     

个体对不同社会阶层的内隐公平偏见及态度

考察个体对不同社会阶层的公平偏见及内隐态度,对社会治理和发展具有重要意义。采用内隐联想测验（IAT）对上述问题进行了探讨,结果发现,相对于低社会阶层,个体更易将公平性词汇与高社会阶层相联结（实验1）;也更易将积极性词汇与高社会阶层相联结（实验2）。上述结果表明,个体存在社会阶层偏好,对高社会阶层持有一种更加公平的、积极的内隐认知。     

Methods in Social Neuroscience,edited by Eddie Harmon-Jones and Jennifer Beer

Abstract

A 10-item Service Ethic Scale was developed and its relationship to personal and demographic variables was analyzed using a sample of secondary school administrators. Ninety-two usable surveys were obtained from a sample of 150 secondary school administrators randomly chosen from the 1994–1995 Louisiana Directory of Schools (Bureau of School Accountability, 1994). Results of exploratory factor analysis showed that the scale had 1 factor that explained 63.2% of the variance, and showed excellent reliability. The scale was significantly correlated with endorsement of the Protestant work ethic and the desire to implement an ethical values curriculum. However, the scale was not related to participants' gender, age, job tenure, or school location (i.e., rural or urban).     

One Man's Authenticity is Another Man's Betrayal: A Reply to Levy

This article responds to Neil Levy's recent suggestion that: (1) the use of pharmaceutical enhancers can be understood as promoting our authenticity, no matter which of the two main contemporary conceptions of authenticity we adopt; and that (2) we do not need to decide between these two rival models (the ‘self‐discovery’ and the ‘self‐creation’ conception) in order to assess the common worry that enhancements will undermine our authenticity. Levy's core argument is based on a comparison between cases of people with ‘Gender Identity Disorder’ (GID) seeking sex reassignment surgery, and cases of enhancement via pharmaceuticals. While conceding the plausibility of Levy's claim (1), I offer reasons to resist (2), by pointing out structural differences between GID cases and some paradigmatic cases of pharmacological enhancement. I argue that these differences prevent the latter sort of cases from counting as authenticity‐promoting on the self‐discovery view. I conclude that Levy's proposed way of ‘breaking the stalemate’ in this debate is unsuccessful: we cannot avoid settling the dispute between the two models if we are to adequately address the authenticity worry about pharmacological enhancement.     

Betrayal Trauma: Traumatic Amnesia as an Adaptive Response to Childhood Abuse

Betrayal trauma theory suggests that psychogenic amnesia is an adaptive response to childhood abuse. When a parent or other powerful figure violates a fundamental ethic of human relationships, victims may need to remain unaware of the trauma not to reduce suffering but rather to promote survival. Amnesia enables the child to maintain an attachment with a figure vital to survival, development, and thriving. Analysis of evolutionary pressures, mental modules, social cognitions, and developmental needs suggests that the degree to which the most fundamental human ethics are violated can influence the nature, form, and processes of trauma and responses to trauma.     

Final Thoughts on the Case of Pamela and Commentaries

Much gratitude is offered to Drs. Bach and Bromberg for their rich discussions of the case. Some reflections and final thoughts are gathered. The value of the single case study is underlined. The emphases by Bach and Bromberg on the centrality of trauma, failures in recognition, and the healing fostered by acceptance, consistency, and care in the treatment are highlighted. Bach points to the patient's need to regress and to “float in her own subjectivity” in the treatment, to not be impinged on by another “I” in the room. Bromberg's focus is on the need to accept all of the patient's different self states, including the guardian of the weak vulnerable self. Bach highlights the unbalancing of the analyst's narcissistic equilibrium in enactment and Bromberg emphasizes the importance of real and spontaneous engagement. Both point to how such enactments involve a crucial unthought living through of the central trauma itself in the treatment of such patients. The analyst is both in the enactment and a witness to it, allowing for the transformation of traumatic affect and bodily memory. The issue of regression and the concept of the false self are highlighted as topics for further discussion.     

What,and Where,Luck is: A Response to Jennifer Lackey

In ‘What Luck Is Not’, Lackey presents counterexamples to the two most prominent accounts of luck: the absence of control account and the modal account. I offer an account of luck that conjoins absence of control to a modal condition. I then show that Lackey's counterexamples mislocate the luck: the agents in her cases are lucky, but the luck precedes the event upon which Lackey focuses, and that event is itself only fortunate, not lucky. Finally I offer an account of fortune. Fortune is luck-involving, and therefore easily confused with luck, but it is not itself lucky.     

The Prices of Resisting Silence: Comments on Calof,Cheit, Freyd,Hoult, and Salter

In this commentary I discuss the shared theme found in articles by Hoult, Calof, Cheit, Freyd, and Salter (this issue) of the prices of resisting attempts to engender silence when the topic is sexual abuse of children. The parallels between silencing tactics of sexual abusers of children and those used by the false memory movement against its critics are analyzed. Questions are raised about the ethical implications of such silencing strategies.     

Shame and Dissociation in Survivors of High and Low Betrayal Trauma

Shame and dissociation cooccur in trauma survivors. Bypassed shame theory posits that dissociation reduces pain by interrupting shame. We tested this theory by inducing dissociation. The hypothesis that higher baseline 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 (BTT), 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 (HBT) are uniquely related to both shame and dissociation compared to traumas lower in betrayal (LBT). The hypothesis that HBT would relate to higher shame was supported. The results suggest that other explanations than bypassed shame theory, such as BTT, might better account for the relationship between shame and dissociation in trauma survivors.