ABSTRACT
This chapter describes what is meant by "early life trauma" and review the neurodevelopmental consequences, identifying overlap with somatization where it exists. It summarizes theoretical and empirical evidence of nervous system compromise associated with early life trauma and somatization. The chapter examines mediational models of dissociation in neuropsychobiological terms that might lead to testable hypotheses or clinically useful narratives of somatization and its associated features, and most importantly. It explores potential diagnostic implications and offer specific recommendations for the practice of clinical neuropsychology. The chapter aims to present a neurobiological framework for understanding somatization from an adaptive perspective through which neuropsychologists in particular can approach the cases and provide helpful diagnoses and targeted feedback and recommendations. In clinical practice, neuropsychologists have typically been reliant on limited alternative explanations for discrepancies between the client subjective complaints and objective test findings to the presence of depression and/or anxiety or the presence of secondary gain.
