Contrary to the standard assumption that psychopathology stems from developmental
immaturity (retardation, fixation, regression), people diagnosed with psychopathology typically
develop along distinctive pathways in which they build complex, advanced skills. These
pathways are based on adaptation to trauma, such as maltreatment, or to problems in
affective–cognitive regulation, such as those in autism. They do not fit normative
developmental frameworks. Research has characterized several types of distinctive pathways,
especially those arising from maltreatment; they are marked by normal developmental
complexity but distinctive affective–cognitive organization. In one study sexually abused
depressed adolescent girls admitted for treatment in a mental hospital described
themselves-in-relationships with age-appropriate, complex developmental levels equal to those
of both nonabused depressed girls and other adolescents. At the same time, they showed a
powerful negativity bias contrasting with the positivity biases of other girls. Many of them
produced dramatic switches in affective–cognitive organization across assessments
contrasting with the similar organization showed by other girls. In another study toddlers from
maltreating families showed a consistent negativity bias in play and representations of
interactions. We show how to portray these distinctive developmental pathways through the
example of Hidden Family Violence, in which people dissociate their private violent world from
their public, good-citizen world.