on with an environmental or ideational stimulus
C. Numbing of responsiveness to or reduced involvement with the external world, beginning some time after the trauma, as shown by at least one of the following:
(1) markedly diminished interest in one or more significant activities
(2) feeling of detachment or estrangement from others
D. At least two of the following symptoms that were not present before the trauma:
(1) hyper-alertness or exaggerated startle response
(3) guilt about surviving when others have not, or about behavior required for survival
(4) memory impairment or trouble concentrating
(5) avoidance of activities that arouse recollection of the traumatic event
6) intensification of symptoms by exposure to events that symbolize or resemble the traumatic event.
Scrignar (1988) claims that until the last two decades, human response to traumatic stress has not been examined empirically but rather has been attributed to such unsavory agents as witches, the devil, "Humors", or masturbation. However, he states that over the past two decades, the phenomena has come under closer scrutiny and the symptoms are now termed Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. This means that now victims of severely stressful events are regarded as suffering from a specific mental disorder etiologically related to a triggering stressor. Indeed, Scrignar (1988) notes that PTSD is one of the few psychiatric disorders that is defined, in part, by the environment.
According to Jay (1991), despite increasing advocation of the notion that battered women are experiencing PTSD, there has been very little empirical work that addresses the topic. Similarly, Walker (1987) has noted that on those few occasions when detailed analyses of symptoms experienced by battered women are conducted, it is more likely that symptoms will fit the PTSD classification of mental disorder than any other classification. If, based on the foregoing claims...