ABSTRACT
Post-traumatic stress is not a new phenomenon, and has been written about in literature for at least a thousand years. However, it has only recently been recognised as a psychiatric disorder. The major influences on the development of the construct of post-traumatic stress have been major disasters, including war, where the work of Abram Kardiner was particularly influential. There has been a constant review and revision of the criteria that define post-traumatic stress and even the current formulation has been challenged for its failure to include chronic traumatic exposures such as are found in domestic violence and bullying. The current diagnostic criteria that put the major emphasis on the situational or objective features of the traumatic event rather than on how the event was perceived may not be a valid approach.
