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On-Demand
Psychosis Care and Connection

Relationships Between Early Life Trauma and Psychosis in Adolescents and Young Adults

Michael Garrett, MD
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Learning Objectives

Participants will be able to:

  • Describe the research evidence linking trauma and psychosis.

  • Differentiate the types of trauma beyond standardized trauma scales.

  • Explain how psychotic symptoms can be understood as trauma-related expressions.

Educational Goal

The educational goal of this workshop is to increase knowledge about the relationship between trauma and psychosis.

Description

This presentation will review research from the past several decades revealing a clear association between trauma and psychosis, challenging the conceptualization of psychosis as a genetically determined brain disease. The talk will offer an expanded definition of trauma that encompasses not only events recorded in standardized trauma scales but also cumulative trauma, strain trauma, trauma resulting from the symbolic meaning of life events, and trauma arising from extraordinary misfortune. It will argue that what has traditionally been diagnosed as “schizophrenia” is better understood as a phenotypic expression of trauma-related complex PTSD. Just as memories of trauma emerge in PTSD flashbacks, psychotic symptoms can be seen as disguised manifestations of trauma.

Presenters

Michael Garrett, MD
Michael Garrett, MD is currently Professor Emeritus of Clinical Psychiatry at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. He is also on the faculty of the Psychoanalytic Association of New York (PANY) affiliated with NYU Medical Center in New York City. He received his medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and completed his residency training in Psychiatry at Bronx Municipal Hospital Center. He currently teaches and supervises clinicians doing psychotherapy for psychosis and is a consultant to several first-episode for psychosis teams in the United States and elsewhere. He has a particular interest in the integration of cognitive behavioral and psychodynamic treatment in the psychotherapy of psychosis, as detailed in a Chapter in Kaplan & Sadock’s Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry 11th Ed titled Individual Psychodynamic Psychotherapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Psychosis, and in his recent book, Garrett, M. (2019) Psychotherapy for Psychosis: Integrating Cognitive Behavioral and Psychodynamic Treatments. Guilford Press/New York.

Financially Sponsored By

  • Ellenhorn