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Information Processing of Trauma

Case Application of a Model

Boston College

ANN W. BURGESS

University of Pennsylvania

Using a conceptual framework drawn from the cognitive sciences of information theory and cybernetics, theories of stress response syndromes, and psychodynamic formulations, a trauma learning model describes how the child victim thinks and processes information about sexual abuse. Critical to the trauma experience is the encapsulation process, in which a defensive silence insulates the ongoing abuse, holds the event in present (rather than past) memory, depletes the child's psychic energy, and interrupts the child's academic, social, and personal development. A case involving a 3-year-old girl victim and a 5-year-old boy aggressor illustrates evaluation principles that address the three information-storage domains: sensations, perceptions, and cognitions.

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