ABSTRACT
A trauma is an experience that our normal defences cannot protect us against and so is overwhelming, and both abuse and neglect can have this effect. Some children are unfortunate enough to suffer both neglect and abuse and I think the word trauma can be applied to both. The original medical meaning of trauma is literally a piercing of the skin, and we might think of psychological trauma as piercing a psychic skin or membrane. Some forms of abuse and neglect are likely to leave any child scarred, such as living in a concentration camp or being gang raped. Other events may be traumatic for one person but not for another, and some people develop symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after an event that others quickly recover from.
