Chapter 1 - The history of early life trauma and abuse from the 1850s to the current time: how the past influences the present

Summary

References to childhood trauma from Ambroise Tardieu's early work focused on physical abuse in the mid 1800s. This chapter outlines the history of child abuse and neglect in the medical and mental health fields. The literature, which refocused attention on the importance of childhood trauma and set the trajectory for a greater appreciation and acceptance of childhood adversity in health and mental health problems, was dominated by accounts of physical abuse. The focus on early sexual abuse gave way to a greater and broader investment in the role of various forms of childhood trauma, abuse and neglect in adverse effects on psychological and physical development, as well as on health and mental health functioning. The ability to accept such a proposition rests in part on accepting that one of the single most pathogenic factors in the causation of mental illness, and some physical health problems, is humans themselves.