Emotional numbing in combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder: A critical review and reformulation

Abstract Emotional numbing symptoms are considered in the clinical literature as cardinal signs of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and have been formally codified in DSM-III-R. However, the term has not been consistently defined nor adequately researched. The present paper critically reviews the extant empirical and theoretical literature in combat-related PTSD that has explored emotional numbing symptoms. A theoretical framework, based on Levanthal's (1984) perceptual-motor theory of emotion, is posited to account for the parameters of emotional processing in PTSD, and specific hypotheses concerning selective or differential emotional processing deficits in PTSD are described in order to clarify empirical issues about the development and maintenance of emotional processing deficits in PTSD and to stimulate future research in this underexplored, yet clinically important area.

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