Possibly the greatest psychological trauma in the novel is the one experienced by Miss Havisham, but Estella and Pip also experience trauma.

Miss Havisham was tricked and left at the altar on her wedding day, a trauma from which, years later, she has not recovered. She most often spends her time in a darkened room where her mouldering wedding cake and wedding spread still sits, wearing her yellowing wedding clothes. It is as if she were so traumatized by this event that time has stopped for her. She can't move on.

Her traumatic betrayal influences Miss Havisham to hate men and desire revenge on them by breaking their hearts as hers was broken. She raises her beautiful ward Estella to be cold and haughty. She wants Pip to fall in love with Estella so that he will be rejected and hurt by her, and she succeeds in this goal.

Estella is also intergenerationally traumatized by Miss Havisham's trauma, because of the way Miss Havisham raises her to be heartless. Estella ends up emotionally damaged, incapable of love. When Miss Havisham is hurt that Estella cannot love her, Estella reminds her that it is she who made her that way.

Pip's encounters with Magwitch also are traumatic. As a young child encountering this desperate convict on the fens, Pip takes seriously his threat to kill him if he tells anybody about him and doesn't bring him food. He is torn up inside about keeping this secret. Later, Pip is traumatized by finding out that his secret benefactor is Magwitch, which is the equivalent, in modern terms, of discovering one's benefactor was once a drug dealer. However, unlike Miss Havisham and Estella, Pip is able to grow and transcend this trauma. This is part of his growth in learning to evaluate people by their character, not their wealth or class.