In A Forensic Psychologist’s Report In A Sexual Harassment, Hostile Work Environment And Retaliation Case forensic psychology expert witness Stephen Reich, Ph.D., writes on the criteria for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from DSM-IV 309.81, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, the American Psychiatric Association.
(A) The person has been exposed to a traumatic event in which both of the following were present:
1. the person experienced, and was confronted with an event or events that involved serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others 2. the person’s response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror
(B) The traumatic event is persistently re-experienced in the following ways:
1. recurrent and intrusive distressing recollections of the event, including images, thoughts or perceptions 2. recurrent distressing dreams of the event 3. acting or feeling as if the traumatic event were recurring (includes a sense of reliving the experience, illusions, and dissociative flashback episodes, including those that occur on awakening)
4. intense psychological distress at exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event 5. physiological reactivity on exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event
Part 2 to be published 5/10/10.