Reference: Judith Herman and the Formulation of C-PTSD,
http://traumainform.wordpress.com/2012/07/07/judith-herman-and-the-formulation-of-c-ptsd/. (Includes a video of an interview with Judith Herman)
The term Complex PTSD was first proposed as a diagnosis by Judith Herman is her 1992 book
Trauma and Recovery to describe a cluster of symptoms which results from ongoing or repeated trauma over which the victim has little or no control, and from which there is no real or perceived hope of escape (e.g., children who are subjected to abuse and/or neglect by their parents).
It is in this respect that CPTSD differs from the more well-known diagnosis Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which typically involves a single instance of acute trauma such as witnessing a tragedy or being the victim of an act of violence. That is, CPTSD is a layering of repeated trauma which results in additional symptoms to those of PTSD. In addition to the recurring flashbacks, avoidance or numbing of memories of the traumatic event, and hypervigilance experienced in PTSD, CPTSD involves five additional symptoms which include alterations in:
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regulation of emotions (e.g., anger, hair trigger flight/flight responses, suicide ideation);
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consciousness (e.g., dissociation);
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self-perception (e.g., fragile sense of self; pervasive sense of shame, guilt, self-blame, of being completely different from other human beings)
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perception of the perpetrator(s) (e.g., preoccupation with relationship with perpetrator);
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relations with others (e.g., isolation and withdrawal, distrust of others, relationship difficulties, loneliness and feelings of abandonment/rejection);
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systems of meaning (e.g., sense of hopelessness and despair, depression).
