Open Access
REVIEW
Mechanisms of the Formation and Involuntary Repetition of Trauma-Related Flashback: A Review of Major Theories of PTSD
Ming Wang1, Jing Liu2,*, Qiwu Sun3,4, Wenzhen Zhu4
1 Center for Mental Health Education, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430070, China
2 School of Humanities, Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, Wuhan, 430065, China
3 School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, 430079, China
4 Department of Psychology, University of North Texas, Denton, 76205, USA
* Corresponding Author: Jing Liu. Email:
International Journal of Mental Health Promotion 2019, 21(3), 81-97. https://doi.org/10.32604/IJMHP.2019.011010
Abstract
Trauma-related flashback is one of the typical symptoms of patients
suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which intrudes into the body
and mind of patients uncontrobaly and repeatedly. Psychodynamic theories of
mechanisms of the formation and involuntary repetition of trauma-related
flashback establish a foundation for most cognitive theories of PTSD. Cognitive
behavioral theories of PTSD, from the initial use of behavioristic principles (e.g.,
conditioning, alternative learning, generalization, etc.) to explain fear
conditioning to the emphasis on the roles of cognitive and behavioral factors
(e.g., cognitive model or schema, completion tendency, associative network,
data-driven processing, analogue representation, etc.) in the representation and
retrieval of traumatic information, present a trend of multirepresentational
theorizing. Inherited from the theories proposed by Pierre Janet in the early years
of the 20th century and based on the integration of existing cognitive behavioral
theories of PTSD, theories of the multiple memory system bring new viewpoints
on the representation and retrieval of traumatic information in memory. In the
last twenty years, several recent theories have received some empirical evidences
both in theoretical and applicational. The clinical and nonclinical implications of
the psychological explanations of trauma-related flashback, the ideas of further
explorations in the theories of PTSD and the directions of future researches of
the prevention and treatment of PTSD are presented.
Keywords
Cite This Article
Wang, M., Liu, J., Sun, Q., Zhu, W. (2019). Mechanisms of the Formation and Involuntary Repetition of Trauma-Related Flashback: A Review of Major Theories of PTSD.
International Journal of Mental Health Promotion, 21(3), 81–97.
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