Where collective traumas come from and whether they can be confronted alone

What is psychological trauma in general

Psychological trauma is the result of a very strong shock that has harmed mental health. On average, we are fairly resilient to shocks. And trauma occurs when the stress is so strong that the psyche cannot adapt to it. This is an interrupted process of mourning that the person could not go through because it was unbearable.

Of course, a lot depends on psyche specific individual. A separate factor of external influence can become passing for one and destructive for another. The results of traumatic events are also different. Someone is able to recover from very terrible incidents. And someone will carry the consequences throughout life.

What is collective trauma

collective traumaG. Hirschberger Collective Trauma and the Social Construction of Meaning / Frontiers in Psychology is a reaction to events that affect a significant part of society. It can be hunger and poverty, war, genocide, a terrorist attack - something that cuts the ground from under your feet and ceases to be a personal tragedy, because it has affected or may affect many.

Of course, the question arises: if people react to traumatic events in different ways, is it fair to unite them in a team? Here, Uncle Fyodor’s dad in the cartoon “Three from Prostokvashino” said: “If we were crazy, then not both at once. They go crazy one by one. It's just influenza everyone gets sick together." There is really something to think about here.

That is, everything is a little more complicated. Consider a simple analogy: the public utilities did not clear the sidewalk of ice, and many people slipped on it. Someone broke the leg, someone hurt his back, someone stood nearby and was horrified, because he could have been hurt. But as a result, they all remember that the place is dangerous, the workers are slow, and you need to look under your feet more carefully, because you can encounter similar circumstances in another place. And the longer they discuss the incident in line at the emergency room, the more obviously the experience will begin to become shared.

What are the consequences of collective trauma

Collective trauma is not just a reflection of a terrible event that happened to a group of people. She eventually is being transformedG. Hirschberger Collective Trauma and the Social Construction of Meaning / Frontiers in Psychology into collective memory and forms the landmarks by which certain people redefine who they are and where they are going.

The collective memory of trauma differs from the individual because it is also transmitted to those who did not face terrible incidents directly, who is far from them in terms of time and / or space. These people have never witnessed traumatic events, and therefore "remember» them differently.

In some situations, the memory of the threat may help to adapt to the situation in order to survival, to form useful installations. It works when it comes to something that doesn't change. For example, in 1930, a tsunami hit the territory of Papua New Guinea, which led to the death of everything 0,1–1%Study finds oral traditions effectively warn people about tsunamis and reduce mortality / UC Santa Cruz population. Because the inhabitants kept the memory of previous cases and knew: if the water recedes from the shore, they must flee to the mountains. Now disaster forecasting methods and technology have stepped forward, but tsunamis can now be much more destructive. For example, in 2004 in Thailand, mortality on the coast was 10–90%, depending on the territory. Researchers also note that migrants who have not absorbed the knowledge of the threat along with the collective memory often die.

But such caution does not always work, or rather, not against any threats. For example, natural phenomena are unchanging and the “run to the mountains” scheme when a tsunami approaches is still effective. But the causes of injuries can also be events that will not be repeated in the same form. And society continues to live in patterns and installationsthat worked before. Or it seems that they worked, because people living today often do not have direct experience, there is only the experience of trauma.

And the over-caution of the affected society develops into a post-traumatic worldview, which is characterized by extreme vigilance, obsessive attention to the threat. It is often accompanied by a feeling that this group of people is alone in the whole world and must stand up for itself.

Such a society would be extremely aggressively to any danger - big or small, real or imaginary, because it is perceived as an attempt on the meaning of existence. There is no right to make a mistake, the reaction must be fast and powerful, since life itself is at stake. At the same time, such a society is blind to positive signals from other groups of people, as it sees a catch in everything. And such a position, contrary to expectations, entails completely different consequences. Namely, it can jeopardize the security of the group, as its actions sometimes push to unnecessary conflict.

If a society has not worked through its trauma, there is a risk that it will tend to repeat catastrophic events. This will be an opportunity to “turn on” the difficult feelings that the group members have been experiencing all this time, to work on grief. But it will also lead to new destructive consequences.

Why teams can hold on to their injury

Without any details, it seems that there is nothing good in any injury. If something is broken, but there is no replacement (in our case, another psyche), it is necessary to fix the old one. But it is not uncommon for groups of people to hold on to their destructive experiences.

After all, society often builds the meaning of its existence around extreme adversity. Over time, it is the trauma that becomes the center around which a group identity is formed, a template on which everything new, incomprehensible is superimposed. It provides a sense of continuity between generations through one destiny.

At the same time, the door to the past always remains ajar, and society is trampling on the threshold, not daring to let go of the doorknob. After all, trauma restores a sense of control, strengthens self-esteem and a sense of collective value, and encourages the search for meaning in suffering. BUT getting rid of her causes strong disgust, as it is presented as a rejection of the collective meaning, unbending the braces. And society can even mobilize to keep the trauma alive.

Researchers bindG. Hirschberger Collective Trauma and the Social Construction of Meaning / Frontiers in Psychology This, among other things, with the fear of death. When a certain symbolic collective entity is formed, the memory of the society becomes a kind of memory for everyone. The aspirations of the group are transformed into the aspirations of the person himself, and its pain and troubles are experienced as genuine personal suffering. Moreover, it becomes honorable to bear hardships and even die for this community.

In moments of trauma, when people are confronted with something deadly, the collective "I" becomes priceless. It replaces the unsatisfied need of individual life with the promise: "Whatever happens to you, the group will endure and survive over time."

How collective trauma is used for manipulation

The trauma of the collective is woven into the identity of its members, and at an unconscious level. They experience pain, resentment, sometimes shame and humiliation. The world feels black and white, where there are “good us” and “bad them”. People in this state easily manipulate: justify what is happening, call for sacrifices or the restoration of the "correct" order of things. And since the traumatized society is not aware of its wounds, it perceives this as a just impulse, easily joining the group without asking too many questions.

For example, in 1389, on the Kosovo field, the troops of the Serbian prince Lazar were defeated in the battle against the Ottoman Empire, and Serbia recognized the suzerainty of the Turkish sultan. And in 1989, President Slobodan Milosevic made a nationalist speech on the same Kosovo field, in which he referred to the loss of a 600-year-old years ago, explained that all these years the Serbs had suffered solely because of this, asked how it would be for them now to look into the eyes of the heroes of that battles. He emphasized that unity in the country would bring prosperity to all the people, and stated that the Serbs had never attacked anyone.

And although the politician then spoke a lot about the multinationality of the state, a significant number of Serbs acceptedOh Zirojević "Kosovo in the Collective Memory" / The Road to War in Serbia: Trauma and Catharsis his previous speech as a motivation to prevent Kosovo's secession. Anthropologist Edith Petrovich pointed outJ. Kourvetaris Ethnonationalism and subnationalism: The case of former Yugoslavia / Journal of Political & Military Sociologythat Milosevic sought to unite history, memory and continuity, contributing to "the illusion that the Serbs who fought against the Turks in Kosovo in 1389 are somehow similar to the Serbs fighting today for Serbian national survival." Psychologist Steven Pinker thinksWITH. Pinker. The best in us. Why is there less violence in the world? this speech is an example of the use of historical memory, which potentially leads to new conflicts, since it is necessary to “restore justice».

Addressing collective trauma is like poking a wand into a wound. And since society is not very aware of what and why it hurts, it can easily succumb to the first impulse - to punish the "guilty", to achieve justice.

What to do with collective trauma

Like individual trauma, collective trauma needs to be worked through. Of course, this will not erase painful circumstances from life - they have already divided existence into before and after. But this will help to perceive traumatic facts more calmly, soberly and respond to further events more adequately.

Get rid of collective injuries differently. But in general, it all comes down to a safe space in which you can safely discuss pain, complex emotions, ask questions, look for answers, go all the way to the end of mourning.

And this is very important. Thus, in Russia, the trauma of mass repressions has not been worked out enough: the archives have not yet been fully opened, and the activities of specialized societies are hindered. And many citizens prefer the position "there was and was, what to remember now."

Of course, the more agreement there is in a society on a particular issue, the easier it is. But without discussion, consensus is impossible at all.

It is clear that the desire of one person who decided to deal with everything is not enough to influence everything society. But a collective trauma is a multitude of individual ones. So you can start with yourself and go, for example, with such a request to a psychologist. Or track when they poke you with a stick in a sore spot and you have an abyss of hard to bear emotions. And then ask yourself questions: why and how does this personally apply to you now.

The study of this experience allows us to preserve historical memory, but not to dwell on it. To live on, not stuck in the moment of injury, but adapting to changing events.