I find this version of the diagnostic criteria good because it moves physiological arousal to the re-expereincing category.

It is also a major numbing ritual, similar to the "It don't mean nothing" ritual used when someone was killed in Vietnam. The phrases, "experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others," contain a repetitious litany of Latin-rooted words, stepping back from the reality of almost being killed, having your body blown apart, seeing someone killed, etc. I don't want to get to graphic, these latinate words are embedded in a series of ors which create a soporific rhythm to the phrases. How can some young, middle-class health care provider identify what they are talking about?? It boggles the mind. And the soporific use of latinate words and the word or continues throughout the entire diagnosis.

On top of that, this is a diagnosis which was entirely absent from DSMII (Which actually came out during the TET offensive in 1968) although Gross Stress Reaction was present in DSM I. As a result of psychiatrist not being able to notice PTSD until Vietnam veterans were having flashbacks in the halls of the VA Hospitals, it has always been seen as a weird re-experiencing disorder with associated features, instead of the body's capacities to survive (numb so you can do what it takes to survive, hyperaroused in order to survive) being engaged and then unable to disengage, which, believe me, most trauma survivors find much more understandable. I think the whole criteria need to be re-written in plain English, and that two categories need to be added: a family element, since many people with PTSD manage to look 'resilient' i.e. financially successful (which in my opinion is not resilience) while the family carries and acts out the pain, and a physical element, since PTSD strongly affects health, and in at least one study of WWII combat vets receiving care at VA hospitals something like 30% with physical problems also had undiagnosed PTSD.