ABSTRACT
Beginning in Chapter 1, we presented an encompassing perspective of the direct relationship of trauma experiences to the incipient development of trauma metaphors in linguistic forms across cultures in the world. Our initial foray and preliminary exploration revealed that, in the most basic ways, psychological trauma is encoded in a consistent pattern of psychic states of a socially encoded, sequential dynamic nature amongst cultures (see Figure 1.1 and Table 1.1). Stated simply, the internal cognitive processing and encoding mechanisms are humanly universal but culturally shaped by language and culture systems and traditions of socio-emotional processes. Trauma-encoded metaphors transform over time from emotionally encoded memories to existential and spiritual representations in everyday language. It is a process of transformation with many pathways to integration.As we have discussed elsewhere, trauma archetypes and trauma complexes are cross-culturally universal in nature (Wilson, 2006). In the most fundamental way, understanding trauma metaphors is just another portal of entry (POE, see Chapter 1) into PTSD intrapsychic, configurational space in conscious and unconscious posttraumatic processes. How does the therapist find these portals of entry (POE)?
