Emotional Flashbacks are instant and sometimes prolonged regressions into the intense, overwhelming feeling states of childhood abuse and neglect: fear, shame, alienation, rage, grief and/or depression.

All 4F types are commonly ambivalent about real intimacy because deep relating so easily triggers them into painful emotional flashbacks (see my article in The East Bay Therapist (Sept/Oct 05): 'Flashback Management in the Treatment of Complex PTSD'. Polarization to a fight, flight, freeze or fawn response is not only the developing child's unconscious attempt to obviate danger, but also a strategy to purchase some illusion or modicum of attachment. Over time a habitual 4F defense also 'serves' to distract the individual from the accumulating unbearable feelings of her current alienation and unresolved past trauma.

Fixation in any one 4F response not only delimits the ability to access all the others, but also severely impairs the individual's ability to relax into an undefended state, circumscribing him in a very narrow, impoverished experience of life. Those who are repetitively traumatized in childhood however, often learn to survive by over-relying on the use of one or two of the 4F Reponses. And finally they also fawn in a liquid, 'play-space' manner and are able to listen, help, and compromise as readily as they assert and express themselves and their needs, rights and points of view. They also freeze appropriately and give up and quit struggling when further activity or resistance is futile or counterproductive. Untraumatized individuals also easily and appropriately access their flight instinct and disengage and retreat when confrontation would exacerbate their danger. Easy access to the fight response insures good boundaries, healthy assertiveness and aggressive self-protectiveness if necessary. In the face of real danger, they have appropriate access to all of their 4F choices. Individuals who experience 'good enough parenting' in childhood arrive in adulthood with a healthy and flexible response repertoire to danger. Many of my clients have reported that psychoeducation in this model has been motivational, deshaming and pragmatically helpful in guiding their recovery. Variances in the childhood abuse/neglect pattern, birth order, and genetic predispositions result in individuals 'choosing' and specializing in narcissistic (fight), obsessive/compulsive (flight), dissociative (freeze) or codependent (fawn) defenses. This model elaborates four basic defensive structures that develop out of our instinctive Fight, Flight, Freeze and Fawn responses to severe abandonment and trauma (heretofore referred to as the 4Fs).

This paper describes a trauma typology for differentially diagnosing and treating Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The 4Fs: A Trauma Typology in Complex PTSD

Complex trauma pete walker