Cumulative Trauma: The Nonproblem Problem

Abstract

The term “cumulative trauma” identifies a specific childhood wounding resulting from the continuous psychological failures or misattunements that a child endures from infancy through adolescence and beyond. The child, basing reality on these experiences, constructs an infrastructure (life script) that the adult who was this child maintains. Various consequences of these relational failures include the child's loss of trust in and knowledge of self, others, and life. A hidden, deep-seated sense of inadequacy, inequality, and insufficiency is often another result. Psychological defenses created to provide protection from these parental relational ruptures ostensibly promise security but, in fact, require internal isolation and loneliness. A case study is included that illustrates the historical origins and psychological effects of cumulative trauma on the adult client. Psychotherapeutic treatment methods are also presented.