Children at psychiatric risk / edited by E. James Anthony and Cyrille Koupernik.
- Date:
- [1974]
Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
Credit: Children at psychiatric risk / edited by E. James Anthony and Cyrille Koupernik. Source: Wellcome Collection.
80/584 page 52
![52 Theory for a New Field Thus adaptation generally involves articulation among the A, B, and С components at any given time. But the fact that a state of adaptation exists does not designate the nature of the three components or of the specific interrelationships among them. For example, adaptation may exist for an infant who is hungry, is able to take food, and has access to an appropriate food source—but for an adolescent, a young adult, or an elderly person, adaption can differ enormously in terms of the definitions and interrelationships among the three components. Conversely, a state of stress may be said to exist within the system—with the potential risk of trauma— when at least one of the components does not articulate well with the others (i.e., when the system fails to get it all together). Thus trauma may result when, under particular С conditions, the В schemata cannot bind or regulate A (e.g., uncontrolled anger), or when С is sufficiently foreign or threatening, so that the individual (AB) is not able to deal adequately with it (e.g., in extremt isolation, or in battle). These propositions will be elaborated with respect to the effects of changes or continuities over the life cycle and various changes in status or other conditions. In doing this, the discussion of the life cycle emphasizes the characteristics of the A and В components and the AB relationships; the discussion of status changes emphasizes effects of changes in the С component and the relation of the existing A and В components, and their relationships to such changes.No attempt is made to be thorough and systematic; rather, representative conditions and studies are cited to indicate some of the factors that may result in states of adaptation or of trauma in terms of the behavioral system that was outlined earlier. The Life Cycle Perhaps man's greatest resource for adapting to himself and the world in which he lives is the extent of his time-binding ability. It not only enables him to develop cultures, with all their diversity and richness, but it also enables him to build upon and profit from his own experiences as an infant, as a child, as an adolescent, and as an adult. By and large his prior experiences later serve to his The distinction between these two emphases corresponds in general to the proposition that adaptation (or stress or trauma) can result from predominately intrapsychic or external sources. See also Haggard [5], pp. 462-465.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b18021876_0081.JP2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
