Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving by Pete Walker

Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving

by Pete Walker

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Psychology & Mind

Fight, flight, freeze and fawn. Walker's case is that children raised with abuse or neglect get stuck in one or two of those responses instead of having all four. A Berkeley therapist, he gives you a map for recovering from Complex PTSD built around emotional flashbacks and shrinking the inner critic.

Core ideas
  • The 4Fs: Fight shows up as narcissistic defense, flight as busyness and perfectionism, freeze as dissociative withdrawal, and fawn as codependent merging with other people's needs.
  • Flashbacks and the critic: Sudden regressions into overwhelming childhood feelings are common to every type, and so is a perfectionist inner critic.
  • Hybrids and freeze: Common combinations include fight-fawn, fawn-flight and flight-freeze, and Walker describes freeze as the most primitive response and the hardest to treat.
Published2013
Pages376
ISBN9781492871842
ReadApr 2023

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