Spiritual Injuries, Traumatic Assaults on the Soul: My Journey Through Childhood and Family Trauma to Recovery - Hardcover

by John Roland High (Author)

This is not a book about Religion, as so many of my readers have inquired to me about. It is about my journey through the childhood and adolescent psychological injuries to my spiritual self.

*(c)Spiritual Injuries are the often conscious and willful attempts to deliberately degrade and diminish the development of the psyche of the child/ person and thereby alter and or re-direct the ongoing moral developmental stages of the moral, psychological and physiological structure of the mental, social and behavioral presentations of the individual (s), group, race, culture and their very livelihood. Spiritual injuries are an attempt (s) to change and render ones complete character, sense of well-being and dependence to something or someone outside of themselves, in a dominating effort to subjugate and take over control of the person.

Being analogous to Battered Women's Syndrome (BWS) Battered Men's Syndrome and Battered Children's Syndrome (see Appendix M) and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (see Appendix H), Spiritual Injuries describes someone who currently is or has been the victim of ongoing, consistent repeatedly severe violence to the point where this violence results in Psychological Trauma, the overwhelming demands placed upon the psychological system that results in a profound felt sense of vulnerability and/ or loss of control (van der Kolk and McFarlane, 1996.) This is to include myriad forms of violence as in domestic violent intrusions, as mentioned earlier, and/ or consistent and repeated attempts at diminishing and degrading ones ego and self-esteem and survival systems.(see Appendix O, Psychological Trauma, The Human Stress Continuum).

Children are born vulnerable to the behaviors of their parents, caretakers and remain vulnerable throughout their latency stage, preadolescent, adolescent to their young adulthood. Often, adverse early childhood experiences have a far-reaching impact on the children's developmental stages. Because of its sometimes subtle applications, Spiritual Injuries are often denied by the victim (s) who often expresses guilt and makes excuses for the abuser/ victimizer, relying on their hope, optimism and on their resiliency to recover from the abuse, and because of developmental circumstances, remain with their abuser. In an attempt to escape their abuse, children often run away from home (a clear notice that "something is wrong in Denmark.")

Unfortunately, even Social Services often miss or ignore these signs of abuse, often returning the children and adolescents to their family of origin or to a foster family, where often the cycle of Spiritual Injuries abuse begins over again. This cycle occurs repeatedly, showing a pattern of abuse occurs in families, cultural groups, races, and is both episodic, generational and inter-generational. This pattern of abuse is not limited to women and girls, but to boys and men, also. Men are not educated to perceive themselves as victims, and are often taught "grow up and be a man" that they are strong, tough, masculine and strong.

Developmentally, the child needs its mother or caretaker through at least age three. It is during this stage that the child is trying to find security and safety in its environment and is constantly looking at the mother/caretaker for repeated assurances. This begins the affect regulation physiological stages for the child. If the mother/caretaker is unavailable due to post-partum depression or is just too busy with other things and other children, the child suffers enormously as it is during this stage that the mother/ caretaker absolutely has to be there with unconditional love, that is, almost always undivided attention. Since the child is wired for this stage, it has no alternative but to seek out these assurances from the mother/caretaker as it is absolutely impossible for a child during this stage to be in a position of fending for him/hersel