Critical Analysis Of The Betrayal Bond

Introduction In the book, The Betrayal Bond: Breaking Free of Exploitive Relationships, author Patrick Carnes presents an in- depth study of relationships that are exploitative and can create trauma bonds. Dr. Carnes explores why these relationships form, who is more susceptible, and how bonds become so powerful. In the text he explains how to identify that traumatic bonding is occurring and he provides ways to examine these relationships. Dr. Carnes then provides specific steps to disentangle from these relationships. As Dr. Carnes explains exploitative relationships can create chains that link a victim to someone who is hazardous to them. Trauma bonding can occur as a result of divorce, litigation of any type, incest and child abuse, family and marital systems, domestic violence, hostage situations, professional exploitation and religious abuse. These situations involve an incredible amount of intensity or importance and they can become a trauma bond when there is an exploitation of trust and power. An important factor in understanding trauma bonds is that “stress becomes traumatic when danger, risk, fear or anxiety is present. This critical analysis will examine some specific aspects of the content within the text.

Figure 1.1 According to Dr.

Carnes then leads into how trauma bonds can be addictive. He lists the following criteria for addiction: “1. Compulsivity: loss of the ability to choose freely whether to stop or continue a behavior 2. Continuation of the behavior despite adverse consequences such as loss of health, job, marriage or freedom 3. Obsession with the behavior”. With the trauma bond, much like addiction to substances or other addictive behaviors, the addiction is defined as a “pathological relationship with a mood-altering substance or behavior”, except with trauma bonding the relationship itself is the compelling and mood altering draw. This supports the pervasive need to continue with the bonds that were created from the