Traumatic bonding
Traumatic bonding occurs as the result of ongoing cycles of abuse in which the intermittent reinforcement of reward and punishment creates powerful emotional bonds that are resistant to change.[1][2]
Patrick Carnes developed the term to describe "the misuse of fear, excitement, sexual feelings, and sexual physiology to entangle another person."[3] A simpler and more encompassing definition is that traumatic bonding is: "a strong emotional attachment between an abused person and his or her abuser, formed as a result of the cycle of violence."[4]
Fractionation, conversationally or interpersonally moving the target from one feeling to its opposite and back again several times in the course of a conversation in order to increase bonding is related to hypnotherapy and Neuro-linguistic programming. Bonding is a biological occurrence related to emotions that makes people more important to each other and is influenced by time spent together.[3]
In abusive relationships
PACE UK[5]
Unhealthy, or traumatic, bonding occurs between people in an abusive relationship. The bond is stronger for people who have grown up in abusive households because it seems to them to be a normal part of relationships.[3]
Initially, the abuser is inconsistent in approach, developing it into an intensity perhaps not matched in other relationships of the victim. It is claimed the longer a relationship continues, the more difficult it is for people to leave the abusers with whom they have bonded.[3]
See also
References
- Dutton; Painter (1981). "Traumatic Bonding: The development of emotional attachments in battered women and other relationships of intermittent abuse". Victimology: An International Journal (7).
- Chrissie Sanderson. Counselling Survivors of Domestic Abuse. Jessica Kingsley Publishers; 15 June 2008. ISBN 978-1-84642-811-1. p. 84.
- Samsel, Michael (2008). "Trauma Bonding". www.abuseandrelationships.org. Michael Samsel LMHC. Archived from the original on May 10, 2018. Retrieved July 7, 2018.
- Wendy Austin; Mary Ann Boyd. Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing for Canadian Practice. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 1 January 2010. ISBN 978-0-7817-9593-7. p. 67.
- "Why does my child keep returning to the abusers?". paceuk.info. PACE (Parents Against Childhood Exploitation). October 15, 2013. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved July 7, 2018.
Further reading
- Jon G. Allen. Coping With Trauma, Second Edition: Hope Through Understanding. American Psychiatric Pub; 20 May 2008. ISBN 978-1-58562-682-3. p. 123–126, 214, 270.
- Patrick Carnes, Ph.D.. The Betrayal Bond: Breaking Free of Exploitive Relationships. Health Communications, Incorporated; 1 January 2010. ISBN 978-0-7573-9719-6.
- Judith A. Cohen; Anthony P. Mannarino; Esther Deblinger. Treating Trauma and Traumatic Grief in Children and Adolescents. Guilford Press; 23 June 2006. ISBN 978-1-60623-848-6. pp. 10–11.
- Karel Kurst-Swanger; Jacqueline L. Petcosky. Violence in the Home: Multidisciplinary Perspectives. Oxford University Press; 2003. ISBN 978-0-19-515114-5. pp. 37–38.
- Sharon M. Meagher; Patrice DiQuinzio. Women and Children First: Feminism, Rhetoric, and Public Policy. SUNY Press; 18 August 2005. ISBN 978-0-7914-6540-0. p. 172.
- Dutton, D. G. (1988). The Domestic Assault of Women: Psychological and Criminal Justice Perspectives, Allyn and Bacon, Boston.
- Dutton, D. G., and Painter, S. L. (1993). Emotional attachments in abusive relationships: A test of traumatic bonding theory. Violence and Victims, Vol 8(2) 105-120.
- Dutton, D. G., and Painter, S. L. (1981). Traumatic Bonding: The development of emotional attachments in battered women and other relationships of intermittent abuse. Victimology: An International Journal, 7(4), 139-155.