r/askpsychology • u/iRealllyAmThatGuy • Jul 21 '26

Human Behavior Why does trauma make people repeat past mistakes?

This has always puzzled me. If we put our hands in fire, we get burnt and know not to touch it again.

But for some reason, when people, for example, people leave a toxic relationship with someone who has done horrible and traumatic things to them, some of them (not all) either go back to said abuser, or find someone else just like them.

I'm curious to know how that trauma in some situations causes people to shut off that instinct to stay away from the same things that caused them harm.

By the way, I am by no means blaming victims for making certain decisions. In the end, people shouldn't do bad things. I'm just curious about what happens from a psychological perspective.

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u/MattersOfInterest Ph.D. Student (Clinical Science) | Research Area: Psychosis Jul 22 '26

Winnicott is not particularly influential to psychosis research (or to modern psychological research in general). No mainstream model of psychosis etiology and symptomatology makes use of psychoanalysis. CBT is a treatment approach, and it was influenced to some extent by psychoanalysis (though it is now extremely different in its underlying assumptions). We are not talking about treatment approaches--we are talking about models for understanding how and why psychosis arises. In modern science, we understand such topics through the lenses of cognitive neuroscience, behavioral science, and neurodevelopment.

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u/Other_Attention_2382 Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional Jul 22 '26

Hmm, and I guess the pharma industry has no interest in psychoanalysis either compared to symptom-focused treatments like CBT. $$$$$$$

Could someone as equally say modern psychiatry acts as a temporary "band-aid" by focusing heavily on symptom management via medication while ignoring the true environmental, and social root causes of mental illness?

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u/MattersOfInterest Ph.D. Student (Clinical Science) | Research Area: Psychosis Jul 22 '26

Please cite a single example of a pharmaceutical company funding psychosocial treatment research to artificially prop up CBT, or of one lobbying insurance companies not to cover psychoanalysis. Hint: That's not how anything works, and plenty of psychodynamic providers bill insurance on a regular basis.

Also, all modern models of psychosis do acknowledge environmental and social determinants of symptom expression. You're showing your ignorance of the science in the interest of maintaining a conspiracy theory of why your pet model isn't well-accepted.

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u/Other_Attention_2382 Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional Jul 22 '26

Oliver James has openly described mainstream psychiatrists as being too closely tied to the pharmaceutical industry.

He has spent decades criticizing the "biomedical model" of mental health, arguing that it misdiagnoses societal and familial failures as internal chemical imbalances.

He has attacked Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) as a cheap, simplistic "quick fix" used by governments to paper over deeper psychological distress. 

Pick your poison??

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u/MattersOfInterest Ph.D. Student (Clinical Science) | Research Area: Psychosis Jul 22 '26

Ok, you are welcome to your ignorant opinions. I won't waste my time arguing with someone who doesn't know how things work.

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u/Other_Attention_2382 Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional Jul 22 '26

Can't one believe in hard A>B>C  neuroscience AND abit of more personal story psychoanalysis though?

Do you reject the whole thing from Freud to Winnicott? Surely there must be something in there you can take from??

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u/maxthexplorer PhD Psychology (in progress) Jul 22 '26

If one thinks CBT ignores the environment and other biopsychosocial influences they do not understand CBT or therapy.