| The term trauma has become ubiquitous both in popular culture and in clinical usage. As the term's popular usage has broadened, the clinical definition --- particularly as it is laid out in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders --- has increasingly narrowed to focus on the external and physical parameters of the experience. Research on this subject notably does not include survivors' perspective, thus neglecting an essential aspect of any clinical definition. This study aimed to explore which clinical and theoretical definitions of trauma most strongly relate to the subjective sense of traumatization, with definitions focusing on physical aspects of the event, emotional reaction to the event, or psychical response to the event.;Using an author-designed online questionnaire about a variety of negative events, participants reported on subjective traumatization, dissociation, initial and continuing symptoms, and how strongly different clinical and theoretical definitions of trauma reflected their experience of each event. The sample's 215 participants ranged in age from 18 to 63 (M=23.56, SD=8.30). 76.7% were female, 93.9% heterosexual, 75.35% Caucasian, 72.5% had an income of ;Results showed that subjective traumatization at the time of the event was most strongly correlated with immediate emotional reaction, but that long-term traumatization was most connected to three factors: feelings of helplessness, changes in worldview, and changes in self-concept. This suggests that the clinical definition currently in use focuses on the wrong area of impact; the primary traumatogenic aspects of a traumatic experience are internal and not external. Implications for diagnosis and treatment are discussed. |
