Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 5, No. 6, 2006, Page 9
traumatized person in therapy may resurrect these implicit memories and place them in a
context of explicit memories directly or indirectly associated with the implicit memory of the
trauma in order to construct a cathartic explanation for the implicit traumatic memories.
This constructed explanation may then function as an explicit memory of the trauma, which
gives the person a capacity to process the trauma in ways that free him/her from its
negative effects. This constructed memory/explanation may reflect the objective situation
with varying degrees of accuracy, which, because therapists can rarely test the objective
truth of the constructed memory, accounts in part for the controversy surrounding
―recovered memories.‖ However, even if some details of the ―memory‖ are inaccurate, the
essence of the experience, i.e., the implicit emotional memories, may nonetheless be
captured in the therapeutic construct, which, regardless of its accuracy of detail, can help
liberate clients from the intrusive automaticity of improperly processed, nonverbal, implicit
memories of trauma.
Other Brain Impairments
Maltreatment also results in diminished left hemispheric development. Each brain
hemisphere has its own memory/learning system as noted above and is specialized for
certain functions. The right hemisphere is more specialized for affect since the limbic
system, the emotional brain, if you will, is more plugged into that half. The left hemisphere,
the linguistic brain, is specialized for language, giving voice to right hemispheric
experiences. The two hemispheres communicate with one another through the modem of
the corpus collosum, nerve fibers that connect the right and left hemispheres (Applegate &
Shapiro, 2005). In people with abuse histories as well as in people with PTSD, the corpus
collosum has been found to be thinner so that the left hemisphere is handicapped in putting
words onto emotional experiences (Teicher, Andersen, Polcan, Anderson, Navalta, &Kim,
2003). Additionally, during trauma the area in the brain responsible for speech, known as
Broca‘s area, shuts down, resulting in the well-known phenomenon of ―speechless terror‖
(Cozolino, 2002).
The ability to put feelings into words is an important component for affect regulation in
adults. Clinicians have intuitively known this, so that psychotherapy involves helping the
client ―talk about‖ his/her experiences—i.e., put left-brain symbols on right-brain
emotions/experiences. The inability to do so keeps the traumatic experiences ―stored‖ in the
right brain/limbic areas and unavailable for exploration. This then puts people at risk for all
forms of psychopathology. Teicher et al. (2003) propose that the emotional lability noted in
people with Borderline Personality Disorder, who often vacillate between states of
idealization and devaluation, might be a function of this lack of corpus collosum integration.
More recent literature on the backgrounds of this clinical population often reveals extensive
traumatic childhood histories (see, for example, Herman, 1992 Sable, 2000 Gunderson &
Berkowitz, 2003). Thus, these two bodies of research are consistent with one another and
support the premise of this paper that child maltreatment has serious consequences for
affect dysregulation and psychiatric disturbance.
Norepinephrine and Dissociation
The other stress hormone mentioned earlier, norepinephrine (NE), may have other
consequences. As previously noted, NE focuses attention, and, like cortisol, is helpful as a
short-term response but detrimental long term. When attention is narrowed to certain
stimuli, other stimuli are shut out. NE is one of the chemicals behind the flashbulb memories
mentioned earlier. From an evolutionary perspective, this focusing response is desirable. If
a hunter is being attacked by a wild boar, he is more likely to survive if he can focus all his
attention on the boar‘s distance and speed, and not get distracted by the beautiful waterfall
behind the boar or thoughts about his beloved waiting at home. Thus, while NE allows some
data to be remembered in bold relief and placed into long-term, hippocampal memory,
traumatized person in therapy may resurrect these implicit memories and place them in a
context of explicit memories directly or indirectly associated with the implicit memory of the
trauma in order to construct a cathartic explanation for the implicit traumatic memories.
This constructed explanation may then function as an explicit memory of the trauma, which
gives the person a capacity to process the trauma in ways that free him/her from its
negative effects. This constructed memory/explanation may reflect the objective situation
with varying degrees of accuracy, which, because therapists can rarely test the objective
truth of the constructed memory, accounts in part for the controversy surrounding
―recovered memories.‖ However, even if some details of the ―memory‖ are inaccurate, the
essence of the experience, i.e., the implicit emotional memories, may nonetheless be
captured in the therapeutic construct, which, regardless of its accuracy of detail, can help
liberate clients from the intrusive automaticity of improperly processed, nonverbal, implicit
memories of trauma.
Other Brain Impairments
Maltreatment also results in diminished left hemispheric development. Each brain
hemisphere has its own memory/learning system as noted above and is specialized for
certain functions. The right hemisphere is more specialized for affect since the limbic
system, the emotional brain, if you will, is more plugged into that half. The left hemisphere,
the linguistic brain, is specialized for language, giving voice to right hemispheric
experiences. The two hemispheres communicate with one another through the modem of
the corpus collosum, nerve fibers that connect the right and left hemispheres (Applegate &
Shapiro, 2005). In people with abuse histories as well as in people with PTSD, the corpus
collosum has been found to be thinner so that the left hemisphere is handicapped in putting
words onto emotional experiences (Teicher, Andersen, Polcan, Anderson, Navalta, &Kim,
2003). Additionally, during trauma the area in the brain responsible for speech, known as
Broca‘s area, shuts down, resulting in the well-known phenomenon of ―speechless terror‖
(Cozolino, 2002).
The ability to put feelings into words is an important component for affect regulation in
adults. Clinicians have intuitively known this, so that psychotherapy involves helping the
client ―talk about‖ his/her experiences—i.e., put left-brain symbols on right-brain
emotions/experiences. The inability to do so keeps the traumatic experiences ―stored‖ in the
right brain/limbic areas and unavailable for exploration. This then puts people at risk for all
forms of psychopathology. Teicher et al. (2003) propose that the emotional lability noted in
people with Borderline Personality Disorder, who often vacillate between states of
idealization and devaluation, might be a function of this lack of corpus collosum integration.
More recent literature on the backgrounds of this clinical population often reveals extensive
traumatic childhood histories (see, for example, Herman, 1992 Sable, 2000 Gunderson &
Berkowitz, 2003). Thus, these two bodies of research are consistent with one another and
support the premise of this paper that child maltreatment has serious consequences for
affect dysregulation and psychiatric disturbance.
Norepinephrine and Dissociation
The other stress hormone mentioned earlier, norepinephrine (NE), may have other
consequences. As previously noted, NE focuses attention, and, like cortisol, is helpful as a
short-term response but detrimental long term. When attention is narrowed to certain
stimuli, other stimuli are shut out. NE is one of the chemicals behind the flashbulb memories
mentioned earlier. From an evolutionary perspective, this focusing response is desirable. If
a hunter is being attacked by a wild boar, he is more likely to survive if he can focus all his
attention on the boar‘s distance and speed, and not get distracted by the beautiful waterfall
behind the boar or thoughts about his beloved waiting at home. Thus, while NE allows some
data to be remembered in bold relief and placed into long-term, hippocampal memory,
