When the experience of loss of power (power deprivation) is inappropriately translated into an imminent threat, it is a maladaptive attempt to deal with the fear. This is Experienced Power Deprivation (EPD). A person under the grip of EPD can be overwhelmed by the experience. They are unable to effectively regulate the anxiety and fear processes in their brain or to regulate their response to what they perceive as imminent threat. Someone who is free of the disorder may experience the same loss, but is able to manage and move through it.
The Experience of Loss of Power
Violence — whether arising from fear or learned behavior — emerges from the experience of the absence or loss of power. It can be real or imagined loss that produces that experience. As seen through the focus of the Violence Integrative Prevention and Restoration (PAR) Model, people who are truly powerful are not violent. They simply have no need to be violent.
When human beings experience a loss of power, they have a number of ways to regain or reclaim power. Healthy processes such as getting support of friends and family, undertaking actions which quickly rebuild the experience of power (including rational and supportive internal dialogue), recognizing the presence of power which has been unaffected by the loss, and mentally and emotionally setting aside the experience until a sense of power is regained are examples.
Imminent Threat
Human beings have five basic responses to imminent threat . These are:
Fight — that is, violence.
Flight — escaping violence.
Freeze — physical inactivity, hypervigilance (being on guard, watchful or hyper-alert).
Posture — present a threatening posture in order to motivate the threat to move away.
Capitulation — letting go of hope of escape and resigning one's self to enduring the consequences of the threat.
A Foundation for Violence
These reactions — appropriate in situations where there is an imminent threat — are inappropriate for most forms of power loss. Yet people who are violent experience their loss of power as threatening and imminent. They may react in any one or a combination of the five ways described above. When they use the fight reaction, they have turned to violence.
