[Traumatic stress severity].

Abstract

Since 1980, a new outlook on stress was applied in connection with the changes in psychiatric concepts and the notion that a traumatic experience may cause specific psychological symptoms varying from the content and source of other psychiatric disorders. The understanding of the trauma, defined by the objective traits of the stressor, separated it from stress as defined by the subjective individual's decision. This was against the current theory of Selye in which the stress reaction is a homogenous entity as a whole, defined by a subjective evaluation of the event, independently of the objective traits. The paper examines new directions in the studies on the meaning of trauma for the person who survived it. According to these studies, the trauma and its consequences cannot be viewed solely in a narrow pathogenic and symptomatic frame. Modern directions of studies on stress led to a model integration of physiological, behavioural and psychological reactions and the trauma itself was to be seen in a cultural and historical context. Today's biopsychocultural model of understanding trauma consists in a complex of common actions from various systems and backgrounds. They comprise the following factors: physical (biological), intrapsychic, interpersonal (familial, social, religious, cultural), educational-professional, economical, political. These systems coexist in a time frame, in common relations and connections. They all affect the capability to evaluate danger, which gives different strategies of coping with oneself. Studies on PTSD give arguments for understanding of the full influence that a trauma can have on a person, and allow for an unlimited outlook on the traumatic situation--its biological, social and existential aspects.