Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 5, No. 6, 2006, Page 12
smells, etc.) acts as ―triggers‖ later on, flooding the survivor with emotions similar to those
accompanying the original event. Conversely, triggers can induce dissociated states,
sometimes called ―floating,‖ (Lalich and Tobias, 2006), which may appear in the form of
―flashbacks,‖ intrusive thoughts, and nightmares.
To clarify further, ―flashbacks‖ are implicit memories made up of sensations, perceptions,
emotions, and behavioral tendencies. They can be conceptualized as experiences that were
not processed explicitly because Broca‘s area (the speech center) shuts down during high
emotional states and the hippocampus goes offline. Clinicians should take advantage of
occurrences such as flashbacks, since it is at these times that implicit memories are most
available for processing. Helping the client put words (left brain symbols) on the limbic
experiences (right brain) will bring down the autonomic arousal. Applegate and Shapiro
state: ―One goal of intervention is to use the conscious linguistic structures of the high road
to inhibit and render more manageable the reactive, unconscious, and preverbal appraisals
of the low-road pathways‖ (P. 186).
Without such intervention, the dissociated experiences remain trapped in the limbic system,
forever vulnerable to ―triggering‖ attacks. Within the safety of the empathic therapeutic
relationship the survivor can begin to ―speak of the unspeakable‖ and gain some control
over his/her internalized cult world.
A compelling case in point, for which the therapist obtained some corroboration (Paul
Martin, Personal Communication), concerns a woman who spent her earliest childhood in a
group that practiced sadistic ritual abuse (Woznick, 2006). Woznick‘s account describes
methods used to instill dissociation. She was, for example, shocked with a cattle prod in
her childhood to stop her crying and threatened with additional shocks if she should ever
show emotion again. She states, ―So began our conditioning to hold our feelings inside no
matter what horrific atrocities we would witness‖ (such as being forced to observe a woman
literally being torn apart by wild dogs). The cattle prod was only one means of intimidation
in a long history of threats and terrorizing experiences. Her inability to leave the cult
resulted in severe Dissociative Identity Disorder when her mind could no longer keep the
walled off material out of consciousness. Although the actual memories were not repressed,
the affect associated with them had been compartmentalized and relegated to her
unconscious. By her early 30‘s Woznick was experiencing fugue states where she lost time
and found herself in strange places without knowing how she got there or why people were
calling her by other names.
Heightened arousal
The third prong of PTSD, heightened arousal, is also further clarified through greater
neurobiological understanding. Affect dysregulation is at the core of heightened arousal—an
inability to regulate emotional states. These include such post-trauma characteristics as the
startle response and emotional volatility. The startle response is an amygdala reaction, the
early warning system we inherited from our reptilian ancestors. Once the amygdala
registers a particular stimulus as dangerous, that stimulus gets generalized to others and
the survivor loses the ability to discriminate among threats. As van der Kolk, McFarlane, and
van der Hart (1996) put it, ―Autonomic arousal, which serves the essential function of
alerting the organism to potential danger, loses that function in people with PTSD. The easy
triggering of somatic stress reactions … causes them to react to all reminders of the trauma
as an emergency‖ (P.421). Constantly hypervigilant, sleep becomes problematic and results
in insomnia and other sleep difficulties often noted in trauma survivors, who not only fear
losing control but are afraid of their dreams.
Likewise, emotional volatility and irritability are characteristic of heightened arousal. As
noted in an earlier section the pre-frontal cortex is inhibited during high amygdala
activation. Heightened arousal results because there are no breaks put on the fight or flight
smells, etc.) acts as ―triggers‖ later on, flooding the survivor with emotions similar to those
accompanying the original event. Conversely, triggers can induce dissociated states,
sometimes called ―floating,‖ (Lalich and Tobias, 2006), which may appear in the form of
―flashbacks,‖ intrusive thoughts, and nightmares.
To clarify further, ―flashbacks‖ are implicit memories made up of sensations, perceptions,
emotions, and behavioral tendencies. They can be conceptualized as experiences that were
not processed explicitly because Broca‘s area (the speech center) shuts down during high
emotional states and the hippocampus goes offline. Clinicians should take advantage of
occurrences such as flashbacks, since it is at these times that implicit memories are most
available for processing. Helping the client put words (left brain symbols) on the limbic
experiences (right brain) will bring down the autonomic arousal. Applegate and Shapiro
state: ―One goal of intervention is to use the conscious linguistic structures of the high road
to inhibit and render more manageable the reactive, unconscious, and preverbal appraisals
of the low-road pathways‖ (P. 186).
Without such intervention, the dissociated experiences remain trapped in the limbic system,
forever vulnerable to ―triggering‖ attacks. Within the safety of the empathic therapeutic
relationship the survivor can begin to ―speak of the unspeakable‖ and gain some control
over his/her internalized cult world.
A compelling case in point, for which the therapist obtained some corroboration (Paul
Martin, Personal Communication), concerns a woman who spent her earliest childhood in a
group that practiced sadistic ritual abuse (Woznick, 2006). Woznick‘s account describes
methods used to instill dissociation. She was, for example, shocked with a cattle prod in
her childhood to stop her crying and threatened with additional shocks if she should ever
show emotion again. She states, ―So began our conditioning to hold our feelings inside no
matter what horrific atrocities we would witness‖ (such as being forced to observe a woman
literally being torn apart by wild dogs). The cattle prod was only one means of intimidation
in a long history of threats and terrorizing experiences. Her inability to leave the cult
resulted in severe Dissociative Identity Disorder when her mind could no longer keep the
walled off material out of consciousness. Although the actual memories were not repressed,
the affect associated with them had been compartmentalized and relegated to her
unconscious. By her early 30‘s Woznick was experiencing fugue states where she lost time
and found herself in strange places without knowing how she got there or why people were
calling her by other names.
Heightened arousal
The third prong of PTSD, heightened arousal, is also further clarified through greater
neurobiological understanding. Affect dysregulation is at the core of heightened arousal—an
inability to regulate emotional states. These include such post-trauma characteristics as the
startle response and emotional volatility. The startle response is an amygdala reaction, the
early warning system we inherited from our reptilian ancestors. Once the amygdala
registers a particular stimulus as dangerous, that stimulus gets generalized to others and
the survivor loses the ability to discriminate among threats. As van der Kolk, McFarlane, and
van der Hart (1996) put it, ―Autonomic arousal, which serves the essential function of
alerting the organism to potential danger, loses that function in people with PTSD. The easy
triggering of somatic stress reactions … causes them to react to all reminders of the trauma
as an emergency‖ (P.421). Constantly hypervigilant, sleep becomes problematic and results
in insomnia and other sleep difficulties often noted in trauma survivors, who not only fear
losing control but are afraid of their dreams.
Likewise, emotional volatility and irritability are characteristic of heightened arousal. As
noted in an earlier section the pre-frontal cortex is inhibited during high amygdala
activation. Heightened arousal results because there are no breaks put on the fight or flight
