ABSTRACT
A group of five men and three women who had a form of psychosis and had experienced childhood physical abuse were interviewed about their lives. The methodology employed was interpretative phenomenological analysis. On a questionnaire for abuse all reported having undergone extreme physical mistreatment but not other forms of abuse such as sexual abuse.
It was striking how for this group both in the content of psychosis, but also concerning their everyday lives, the participants reported an extreme and pervasive terror of being attacked. They lived in what was described as an ‘aggression permeated world’. Forming relationships and trusting others were reported to be extremely difficult. Depression, ferocious self hate, and extremely negative emotions were common.
Some delusions and voices related to a fear of being murdered if not obliterated by groups of others. The participants described moving in and out of what they described as being ‘paranoid’; sometimes involving a change in identity, and some participants described how specific ideas and narrations had developed over many years. All saw a connection between their present suffering and past abuse, but not for psychotic symptoms.
