Sex Trafficking by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783031091209
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

4.3.2 Characterological Features

In addition to the symptomatic sequelae, the coercive control that characterizes prolonged victimization produces characterological changes in the form of pathological changes in identity and the capacity for relatedness (Ford & Courtois, 2009; Herman, 1992a, b).

“While the victim of a single acute trauma may say she is ‘not herself’ since the event, the victim of chronic trauma might lose the sense that she has a self” (Herman, 1992a, b; p. 385). The disturbances in identity that result from chronic traumatization manifest in various ways, including a pervasive experience of shame and a sense of the self as defective, contaminated, or bad; an absence of an integrated sense of the self across time and situations, splitting-based views of the self and others as is seen in borderline personality disorder (Kernberg, 1984) in (Herman, 1992a, b); and a fragmentation of the self, which, at its most severe, can manifest as dissociated self-states such as are observed in dissociative identity disorder (Chefetz, 2015; Herman, 1992a, b; Howell, 2011; Putnam, 1989, 2016).

Prolonged victimization and psychological coercion profoundly undermine the quality of the person’s relationships with others. Being in captivity under coercive control results in the perpetrator becoming the most influential and powerful person in a victim’s life and their actions and beliefs shaping the victim’s psychology (Contreras et al., 2017; Herman, 1992a, b; Herman, 2003). Coercive control is established via strategies that are “designed to instill terror and helplessness, to destroy the victim’s sense of self in relation to others, and to foster a pathologic attachment to the perpetrator” (Herman, 1992a, b; p. 383). These strategies include the threat of violence, humiliation, and controlling bodily functions or depriving the victim of basic needs until their autonomy is destroyed, and they are under the complete control of the perpetrator. Abusers also isolate their victims from other people so that they become completely dependent on them for both basic and emotional needs and, perhaps most destructively, abusers force their victims to witness or participate in crimes against others (Contreras et al., 2017; Herman, 1992a, b).

The result of isolating the victim and making them completely dependent on the perpetrator is a phenomenon whereby the victim comes to identify with their captor or abuser known as “traumatic bonding.” This bond, along with the diminished sense of autonomy that results from being controlled by, and entirely dependent upon, the perpetrator, makes it difficult for victims to leave even if they have opportunities to do so (Herman, 1992a, b). This has been described as a central mechanism in the experience of battered women (Walker, 2016) and is relevant to survivors of CSE as well. Indeed, in the case of sex trafficking, it may be one reason some survivors do not think of themselves as victims who have been trafficked, which is one of the major barriers to reintegrating and accessing treatment and other resources (Contreras et al., 2017).

The relational sequelae of traumatic bonding persist even after escape, serving as a template for the survivor’s other relationships and, in some cases, keeping the perpetrator alive in the internal world of the survivor.

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