From wounding to plasticity: an integrated framework for trauma

Abstract

Introduction: The paper presented an integrated framework on psychological trauma that articulated Freudian psychoanalysis with findings from neuroscience. It defined trauma as an unforeseen and overwhelming event that overwhelmed the capacity of response and altered the psychic and biological economy. He took up Freud's work -from the studies with Breuer to Beyond the Pleasure Principle- and complemented it with authors such as Charcot, Laplanche and Pontalis. From neuroscience, he gathered definitions and evidence on sensitive periods, plasticity, functional reorganization and behavioral effects.
Development: From Freud, he described trauma as a rupture of the anti-stimulus barrier, introduced traumatic anguish and repetition compulsion, and raised the life drive/death drive tension. He exposed the theoretical evolution from the seduction theory to the reconsideration of the role of memory, forgetting and transference. The neuroscientific axis showed that early adversity affected neuronal organization and plasticity, shortened learning windows and reinforced hyper-reactive limbic-cortical circuits, with hypervigilance and impulsivity. He pointed out evidence of inter- and transgenerational transmission via endocrine, neural and epigenetic mechanisms. In memory, he reported selective episodic memory deficits for neutral content and increased fixation of emotional materials or materials linked to the traumatic event.
Conclusions: Concluded that trauma was multifactorial and systemic. Surprise and inassimilability precipitated disorganization; repetition functioned as a costly attempt at binding; and early context modulated safety and symbolization. He proposed developmentally sensitive interventions that protected plasticity, strengthened attachment, and promoted physiological regulation and narrative elaboration.