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Psychological Injury: Systems, Change Processes, Development

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Abstract

This paper presents a model of chronic pain [Young and Chapman (Pain, affect, nonlinear dynamical systems, and chronic pain: Bringing order to disorder. In G. Young, A. W. Kane, & K. Nicholson (Eds.), Causality of psychological injury: Presenting evidence in court (pp. 197–241). New York: Springer, 2007)]. It includes extensive coverage of the systems perspective. The paper expands the model to medically unexplained symptoms and provides a developmental model of how these may unfold and influence adult presentation after events such as accidents. Similarly, the model is examined for the developmental roots of personality disorder. The paper examines other threats to validity of diagnosis in cases of psychological injury.

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Acknowledgements

Many thanks to a reviewer for helpful comments on the text.

The author’s work has been supported by course leaves granted by both Glendon College and York University and editorial grants from Springer Science + Business Media.

Conflicts of interest

In terms of possible conflicts of interest, the author has obtained most of his attorney referrals and psycholegal referrals from plaintiff rather than defense attorneys and assessment companies.

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Correspondence to Gerald Young.

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Young, G. Psychological Injury: Systems, Change Processes, Development. Psychol. Inj. and Law 1, 243–254 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12207-008-9020-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12207-008-9020-5

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