From The Guardian. Stephen Porges is professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina and “Distinguished University Scientist” at Indiana University, where he has created the Traumatic Stress Research Consortium. He is best known for developing polyvagal theory, which describes how visceral experiences affect the nervous system and our resulting behaviour. On Monday 10 June, he will be giving a talk at Love vs Trauma, the Body & Soul charity’s day-long symposium in London, which aims to tackle issues surrounding childhood adversity and trauma. Other participants include Peter Fonagy and Lemn Sissay.
In the article it states that trauma is the cause of all mental illness, no sure how that has been worked out. Some people have had distorted upbringings but not necessarily trauma or abuse, whereby they have been thwarted from having a parental figure to link them to the outside world, and an unhealthy close relationship with another parent who may have been psychotic. RD Laing & Esterton discovered some of these relationship dynamics with psychotic patients. That’s not to say they didn’t suffer some Rama of course as no one was there to verify.