Kleshas: The Five Afflictions Root Trauma Patterns

The kleshas are Patanjali's five root afflictions that obscure consciousness: avidya (ignorance), asmita (ego), raga (attachment), dvesha (aversion), and abhinivesha (fear-of-death). Trauma survivors embody all five: ignorance about their own nervous system responses, ego fragmentation from dissociation, attachment to protective but limiting defenses, aversion to triggering memories, and existential fear from mortality confrontation. EMDR addresses these simultaneously—as bilateral stimulation reprocesses traumatic material, the kleshas gradually lose grip. The brain stops acting from ignorance, ego defenses relax, attachment to trauma narratives loosens, aversion to internal experience decreases, and existential terror finds resolution. Patanjali provides archetypal language for what clinicians recognize as trauma's psychological infrastructure. Understanding trauma through the klesha framework illuminates why traditional talk therapy alone often stalls—the afflictions run deeper than narrative. EMDR addresses the neurobiological substrate where kleshas reside.