Conclusion: Trauma and Culture: How Trauma Can Shape the Human Mind Yuval Neria and Yochai Ataria
Exposure to violence is central to human development. Parental aggression and neglect, bullying, sexual abuse, torture, terrorism, and war trauma are all extremely prevalent, both across an individual’s life-span and worldwide (Breslau et al., 1998; Kessler, Sonnega, Bromet, Hughes, & Nelson, 1995). Traumatic exposure can be life altering. Clinically, interpersonal violence is the worst form of trauma. More than other traumatic events, interpersonal traumas are often intentional, cruel, and painful. Studies have repeatedly shown that enduring interpersonal trauma, particularly in the form of violent relationships, disrupts human development, impairing sense of trust, justice, and fairness (Kessler et al., 1999; Yehuda, 2002). Moreover, violence may carry over across generations (i.e., transgenerational trauma, Schwab, 2010), as discussed in this book by Bartal (Chap. 7) and Zohar (Chap. 8). Some even suggest that people exposed to violence early in life may subsequently develop violent behaviors as adults. Moreover, some scholars
Y. Neria, Ph.D. (*) Columbia University Medical Center and the New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA e-mail:
[email protected] Y. Ataria, Ph.D. Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rechovot, Israel
speculated, based on the Freudian theory (Freud, 1939), that collectives (e.g., nations) exposed to organized trauma may themselves subject other collectives to a trauma once they become powerful enough (see LaCapra, 2001). Numerous studies have shown that exposure to trauma has significant psychological and psychiatric consequences, including pathological anxiety, PTSD, and depression (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). The severity of these outcomes is often correlated with the severity of the trauma (Joyner et al., Chap. 20), particularly if the exposure is continuous and repeated (Herman, 1992). For example, many studies, including our own, among prisoners of war, suggest that torture and humiliation are detrimental to human physical and mental health (Ataria & Neria, 2013; Neria, Solomon, Ginzburg, Dekel, Enoch, & Ohry, 2000). Indeed, the injurious effects of confinement, isolation, and interpersonal cruelty may lead to mental “breakdowns” during imprisonment, and consequently severe mental health problems (Arthur, 1982). Importantly, exposure to extreme adversities may be associated with neurobiological impairments, including difficulties in fear processing, and accurate discrimination between safe and threatening stimuli (Shvil, Rusch, Sullivan, & Neria, 2013). Yet, what this volume, in its entirety, proposed is that exposure to extreme trauma may also
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shape cultures. Such transformation may occur following exposure to large scale traumas which may alter core beliefs affecting traditions, and changing social values. As discussed in this book major events such as the Holocaust, the Vietnam War, and the 9/11 attacks have the potential to penetrate the core of societies, transforming basic ways of intellectual functioning, and overhauling their cultural infrastructures. Indeed, major traumas may have the awesome energy to shake entire social and political systems according to which people have lived their lives, undermining existing knowledge, replacing comfortable certainty with anxiety-provoking chaos, ambiguity, and fear (Bracken, 2001). The book attempted to provide to the reader a number of examples of how religion (Chaps. 14 and 15), modern art (Chaps. 6, 8 and 10), film (Chap. 16), and philosophy (Chap. 11) are galvanized by violence and catastrophes. Furthermore, the chapters illustrate to what extent and how public traumas, via direct and indirect representations, may influence the public, affect its artistic expressions, and generate intense, often painful, social discourse. Because modern wars and atrocities (e.g., 9/11 attacks) are widely and excessively reported live via multiple means of digital and social media, and transmitted to millions of spectators, traumas are increasingly becoming immediately available, highly public, and yet intrusive, repetitive, and eventually difficult to ever deny or forget. Moreover, current TV sets, through large industries of cables and satellites, can disseminate gruesome images of death and injury around the globe as never before, and indirectly traumatizing millions, even in remote places (Neria & Sullivan, 2011). Analyzing these phenomena, Rothe (Chap. 4) suggests that the concept of popular culture can be replaced, at least to some extent, with the concept of a popular trauma culture, and both Meek (Chap. 2) and Arav (Chap. 3) demonstrate how trauma becomes almost synonymous with high ratings. Researchers and clinicians have played a critical role in transforming trauma from being a private event, often associated with shame and guilt, to the public domain. Initiated in the early 1980s
a small group of highly dedicated and visionary clinicians and researchers, such as Robert Jay Lifton (1967, 1973, 1986), Bessel van Der Kolk (1987, 2014), Zahava Solomon (Solomon, 1990; Solomon & Benbenishty, 1986; Solomon, Weisenberg, Schwarzwald, & Mikulincer, 1987), Judith Herman (1992), among others, were able to effectively communicate the emotional toll of trauma to the public. During this time the consequences of severe psychological traumas such as wars, sexual abuse, and childhood adversities were clinically formulated and rigorously studied, opening the door for developing highly needed evidence-based therapies for PTSD (Foa et al., 2005; Markowitz et al., 2015; Schneier et al., 2012). Today, more than three decades later, while psychological trauma and its consequences are widely researched, what this book highlights is that more research is still needed to describe the interplay between culture and trauma. We hope that the chapters of this volume will elevate such efforts and energize future discussions, eventually contributing to a better understanding of the human reactions to human suffering.
References American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing. Arthur, R. J. (1982). Psychiatric symptoms in prisoner of war and concentration camp survivors. In C. Friedmann & R. Faguet (Eds.), Extraordinary disorders of human behavior (pp. 47–63). New York and London: Springer. Ataria, Y., & Neria, Y. (2013). Consciousness-bodytime: How do people think lacking their body? Humans Studies, 36(2), 159–178. doi:10.1007/ s10746-013-9263-3. Bracken, P. J. (2001). Post-modernity and post-traumatic stress disorder. Social Science & Medicine, 53(6), 733–743. doi:10.1016/S0277-9536(00)00385-3. Breslau, N., Kessler, R. C., Chilcoat, H. D., Schultz, L. R., Davis, G. C., & Andreski, P. (1998). Trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder in the community: The 1996 Detroit area survey of trauma. Archives of General Psychiatry, 55(7), 626–632. Foa, E. B., Hembree, E. A., Cahill, S. P., Rauch, S. A., Riggs, D. S., Feeny, N. C., et al. (2005). Randomized trial of prolonged exposure for posttraumatic stress
Conclusion: Trauma and Culture: How Trauma Can Shape the Human Mind disorder with and without cognitive restructuring: outcome at academic and community c. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73(5), 953–964. Freud, S. (1939). Moses and Monotheism. (K. Jones, Trans.) New York: Vintage Books. Herman, J. L. (1992). Trauma and recovery. New York: Basic Books. Kessler, R. C., Sonnega, A., Bromet, E., Hughes, M., Nelson, C., & Breslau, N. (1999). Epidemiological risk factors for trauma and PTSD. In R. Yehuda (Ed.), Risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder (pp. 23–59). Washington: American Psychiatric Association. Kessler, R. C., Sonnega, A., Bromet, E., Hughes, M., & Nelson, C. B. (1995). Posttraumatic stress disorder in the national comorbidity survey. Archives of General Psychiatry, 52(12), 1048–1060. LaCapra, D. (2001). Writing history, writing trauma. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Lifton, R. J. (1967). Death in life: Survivors of Hiroshima. New York: Random House. Lifton, R. J. (1973). Home from the war. New York: Simon & Schuster. Lifton, R. J. (1986). The Nazi doctors. New York: Basic Books. Markowitz, J. C., Petkova, E., Neria, Y., Van Meter, P. E., Zhao, Y., Hembree, E., et al. (2015). Does PTSD require exposure-based treatment? A randomized trial. American Journal of Psychiatry, 175(2), 430–440. Neria, Y., Solomon, Z., Ginzburg, K., Dekel, R., Enoch, D., & Ohry, A. (2000). Posttraumatic residues of captivity: A follow-up of Israeli ex-prisoners of war. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 61, 39–46. Neria, Y., & Sullivan, G. M. (2011). Understanding the mental health effects of indirect exposure to mass
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trauma through the media. Journal of the American Medical Association, 306(12), 1374–1375. Schneier, F. R., Neria, Y., Pavlicova, M., Hembree, E., Suh, E. J., Amsel, L., et al. (2012). Combined prolonged exposure therapy and paroxetine versus prolonged exposure therapy and placebo in PTSD related to the world trade center attacks: A randomized controlled trial. American Journal of Psychiatry, 169(1), 80–88. Schwab, G. (2010). Haunting legacies: Violent histories and transgenerational trauma. New York: Columbia University Press. Shvil, E., Rusch, H. L., Sullivan, G. M., & Neria, Y. (2013). Neural, psychophysiological, and behavioral markers of fear processing in PTSD: A review of the literature. Current Psychiatry Reports, 15(5), 1–10. Solomon, Z. (1990). Does the war end when the shooting stops? The psychological toll of war1. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 20(21), 1733–1745. Solomon, Z., & Benbenishty, R. (1986). The role of proximity, immidiacy and expectancy in front line treatment of combat stress reaction. American Journal of Psychiatry, 143(5), 613–617. Solomon, Z., Weisenberg, M., Schwarzwald, J., & Mikulincer, M. (1987). Posttraumatic stress disorder among frontline soldiers with combat stress reaction: The 1982 Israeli experience. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 144(4), 448–454. van der Kolk, B. A. (1987). Psycological trauma. Washington: Amrican Psychiatric Press. van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The body keeps the score. New York: Viking. Yehuda, R. (2002). Posttraumatic stress disorder. The New England Journal of Medicine, 346(2), 108–114.
Index
0-9, and Symbols 9/11 attacks, 7, 27–30, 33, 134, 138–140, 147, 325–334, 394
A Abraham, 259, 268, 270–273, 279–283 Acting-out, 32, 44, 47, 217–219, 232, 237, 238, 343 Agamben, G., 28, 45, 95, 171, 177, 178, 255, 258, 259, 262, 263, 274 Akira, 108 Allegoresis, 67–85 Anime, 102, 105, 108–110 Anxiety, 6, 14, 30, 31, 35, 39, 61, 71, 74, 109, 110, 122, 154, 158, 161, 208, 232, 244, 246, 284–289, 291, 292, 298, 305, 307, 321, 322, 330, 331, 343, 354–356, 358, 378, 393, 394 Apocalypse, 109, 111, 235, 259, 260 Apocalypse Now, 12, 267, 268, 270–273, 275 Arad, M., 88, 89 Architectural trauma, 133–148 Architecture, 88–90, 93, 133–148 Auschwitz, 4, 5, 29, 31, 33, 45, 55, 93, 95, 102, 189, 195, 199, 201, 202, 205, 207, 317, 319, 322 Authenticity, 52, 55, 60, 62, 63, 128, 195, 200, 275
B Barefoot Gen, 111, 112, 114 Belatedness (Nachträglichkeit), 88, 92, 164, 166–169, 173, 184 Benjamin, W., 14, 19, 30, 72, 77, 217, 220, 233, 241–246, 262–264, 279, 280, 283, 301 Borofsky, J., 90–92
C Camus, A., 15, 169, 188, 269–274 Caruth, C., 43, 87, 118, 170, 181–185, 187–189, 191, 192, 195, 197, 244, 252, 255 Chan, P., 88, 91, 92, 95 Charcot, J-M., 33, 57
Concentration camps, 5, 55, 62, 64, 145, 198, 199, 206–209, 211, 212, 214, 215, 238, 240, 255, 274 Conflict-related-sexual-violence (CRSV), 339–346, 348, 349 Cultural trauma, 7, 27–37 Culture, 4, 12, 22, 27, 29, 31–33, 35, 69, 70, 283, 284
D Deferred action, 134, 137, 167, 168 Defining trauma, 163–166, 178 Derrida, J., 6, 14, 102, 144, 163, 177, 178, 220, 241, 252, 253, 255, 257, 279–283, 301 Disasters, 7, 28, 39, 42, 44, 56, 57, 107, 110, 113, 138, 141, 246, 272, 303, 305, 321, 325, 327, 331, 332 Dissociations, 3, 22, 210, 220, 257, 261, 276, 328
E Eichmann trial, 53–56, 64, 320 Emplotment, 52, 57, 60, 61, 63 Episteme, 68–72 Ethiopia, 365, 371–372 Ethnicity, 326–329, 332, 334, 339, 341, 377 Excessiveness, 164, 166, 168–171, 173 Existence, 7, 11, 13, 18–22, 44, 46, 67, 71, 74, 76–78, 81, 83, 84, 96, 102, 148, 187, 218, 219, 225, 229, 231, 232, 234, 235, 242, 256, 259, 262, 271, 274, 276, 370, 373
F Faith, 4, 30, 46, 79, 80, 101, 119, 212, 252, 262, 333, 341, 347, 361 Father–son, 218, 280–283 Fear, 29, 32, 74, 82, 207–208, 214, 286–288, 291, 292 Felman, S., 6, 15, 31, 45, 128, 170, 171, 181, 184, 187, 189, 195, 207 Films, 30, 31, 33, 36, 39, 44, 45, 48, 63, 101, 102, 105–109, 111, 114, 117, 120, 122, 127, 129, 145, 188, 191, 218, 219, 267, 268, 273, 274, 321, 330, 358, 362, 378, 380, 381, 388, 394 Foer, S., 9, 11, 88, 93, 95–98
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Index
398 G Gender, 64, 123, 159, 220, 287, 289, 294, 326, 328, 331–333, 339, 340, 344–346, 348 Gerard Manley Hopkins, 68, 71, 72 Godzilla (movie), 106 Godzillas, 109 Grave of the Fireflies, 111 Grief, 28, 81, 92–93, 97, 104, 291, 365–367, 369, 371–373
H Heidegger, M., 167, 170, 172, 176–178, 258 Hermeneutics, 67, 68, 71, 72, 74–79, 81–85, 225, 226, 232 Hiroshima, 27, 31, 35, 102, 105, 106, 110–112, 114, 120 Holocaust, 27–29, 32, 33, 35, 36, 45, 52–58, 63–65, 95, 96, 101–109, 111–113, 118, 120, 128, 171, 185, 186, 188–192, 195–197, 214, 234, 238–239, 317–320, 347, 368, 394 Hypermasculinity, 61, 343, 345, 346
I Importunity, 164, 166, 170–174, 176 Irremediability, 164, 166, 171–174, 178 Israel, 109, 112, 220, 221, 225, 227, 228, 231, 233, 236–238, 245, 246, 259, 317, 319–322, 365–374
J Japan Sinks, 107 Jewish, 203, 295
K Kafka, F., 71, 72, 84, 255, 262, 264, 269, 272, 274, 276, 277, 279–301 Kansteiner, W., 55, 181, 184, 186, 187, 190, 192 Kolk, Bessel van der, 182, 183, 185
L LaCapra, D., 18, 32, 118, 119, 181, 188, 196, 203, 210, 254, 393 Laius, 279–301 Laub, D., 6, 15, 31, 45, 128, 170, 171, 181, 186, 188, 189, 195, 198, 208 Levi, P., 54, 195–215, 220, 264, 274, 276 Leys, R., 135, 137, 140, 143, 147, 181, 182, 184, 192 Libeskind, D., 89, 139 Lindman, P., 88, 92, 93 Literature, 31, 59, 62, 65, 67–69, 71–72, 84, 85, 88, 119, 120, 168, 169, 181, 188, 200, 210, 220, 222, 224, 225, 237, 243, 245, 246, 251, 262, 280, 321, 323, 365, 366, 378 Loughner, J., 360, 362 Luckhurst, R., 57, 181, 182, 184, 185
M Male rape, 342, 343, 349 Manga, 102, 104, 105, 107–110, 112–114 Masculinity, 65, 268, 344 Maternality, 279–301 Matrixial, 153–155, 157–162, 281–285, 287–291, 293–295, 297–301 McLuhan, M., 104, 105 Meaning, 5–9, 12–16, 19, 20, 31, 36, 43, 44, 72, 74, 75, 78, 79, 83–85, 282–285, 291, 297 Media, 3, 6, 7, 9, 22, 27–37, 40, 41, 45, 46, 48, 51–56, 59–64, 88, 92, 94, 98, 101, 103–106, 114, 129, 139, 144, 188, 190, 193, 330, 369, 371, 381, 386, 394 Memory, 3, 5, 6, 9, 11, 15, 16, 18, 21, 22, 30, 32, 34, 42–44, 46–48, 75, 195–199, 201–208, 210, 211, 214, 215, 298 Message to Adolf, 112 Modernism, 4, 7, 14, 22, 67–84, 217, 219, 221, 222, 226–229, 231, 240, 241, 244 Mourning, 28, 36, 242, 246, 285, 298, 365–374 Muselmann, 64, 255, 264 Muselmänner, 171, 264
N National Rifle Association (Wayne LaPierre) Asperger Syndrome, 355 berserk state (amok), 354, 356–358, 360 Columbine high school, 359 pseudocommando, 356, 360 Sandy Hook school, Newtown CT, 353 social death, 354, 355, 359, 362 Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, 109 Nazis, 28, 31, 61, 62, 110, 112, 171, 177, 184, 190, 192, 197, 207, 214, 255, 320 New York, 44, 87, 88, 91, 92, 95–97, 105, 134, 138, 140, 277 Nietzsche, F., 167, 171, 174–178, 242, 258 Nostalgia, 18, 47–48, 59, 84, 121–123, 242, 243, 257
O Obama, B., 28, 361 Oedipal model (of trauma), 184
P Perec, G., 195–215 Perpetrators, 56, 57, 60, 61, 120, 122–124, 129, 191, 192, 274, 340, 342, 343, 346, 379, 385–389 Plath, S., 72 Poetry, 5, 68, 71–74, 76, 79, 80, 85, 238, 240, 241, 246, 290, 293, 299, 377 Political prisoners, 340 Post trauma, 209 Post-memory, 63, 103, 114, 189 Postmodernism, 103, 184, 190 Post-trauma, 3, 6, 45, 267–269, 310, 332
Index Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), 28, 29, 33, 35, 135, 188, 303–311, 325–334, 342, 347, 366, 382, 383, 393, 394 Prisoners, 12, 34, 186, 195, 198, 199, 201, 208, 269, 274, 341, 377, 379, 381, 383–386, 393 Psychoanalysis, 6, 154, 167, 168, 182, 185, 187, 188, 231, 251–254, 257, 282, 293, 298
R Reconstruction, 41, 44–48, 114, 119, 121, 123, 129, 139, 140, 142, 147, 223, 257, 289, 297 Reenactment, 41, 46–47 Religion, 62, 71, 186, 219, 223, 240, 251–265, 326, 329, 330, 333, 339, 344, 346–348, 379, 394 Repetition compulsion, 43, 170, 171, 176, 191 Repetitions, 4, 11, 18, 34, 43–44, 47, 83, 87, 89, 92, 96, 102, 108, 121, 124, 143, 146, 176, 177, 242, 252, 255, 268, 270, 283, 286, 296, 360 Representations, 4, 7, 12, 22, 31, 36, 41, 45, 47, 48, 67, 71, 80–84, 286 Risks, 28, 61, 81, 111, 160, 291, 298, 305, 326–328, 332, 343, 366, 373 Rodger. E.O., 361, 362 Rosenzweig, F., 176–178, 227 Russia, 220, 270, 276, 365, 370, 371
S Sacrifices, 11, 21, 22, 28, 56, 79, 122, 124, 154, 157, 160, 176, 258, 259, 261, 268, 271–273, 279–284, 298, 300, 301, 318, 359, 369 Sarajevo, 134, 141–143, 147 September 11 attacks, 331 Sexual violence, 184, 339–341, 343–345, 348 Shocks, 9, 15, 32–35, 42, 44, 48, 73, 206–208, 279–301 Slow motion, 41, 47 Space Battleship Yamato, 107, 108 Spiegelman, A., 88, 93–95, 101 Spirituality, 333, 346–348 Suffering, 3, 5, 7–10, 15, 16, 21, 384, 385, 394 Survival, 9, 17, 21, 30, 52–54, 61, 62, 64, 65, 109, 143, 193, 213, 303–305, 308, 346, 359, 361, 383 Survivors, 31, 35, 59, 195–197, 201, 202, 204, 207–209, 211 Sylvia Plath, 279–301
T Takashi, M., 106, 123 Television, 28, 29, 33, 36, 39–48 Tezuka, O., 112
399 The Deer Hunter, 33, 267–270, 275 The Grave of Fireflies, 114 Time, 4–6, 8, 9, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 28, 29, 31, 33, 40–45, 47, 48, 67–80, 82–84, 197–199, 201–211, 213, 215, 279, 280, 284–288, 291, 292, 297–300 Trauma, 3–9, 11–19, 21, 22, 27–37, 39–48, 69–72, 83–85, 195, 197, 198, 204–206, 209–211, 282, 285, 287, 288, 290, 293, 294, 298–300 Traumatic bereavement, 365–374 Treatments, 35, 58, 102, 231, 233, 234, 254, 257, 258, 304, 307, 310–311, 334, 339, 347, 348, 356, 378, 383 Truths, 29, 45, 47, 54, 56, 59, 63, 69, 73, 74, 77, 83, 96, 103, 105, 111, 122, 140, 163, 177, 183, 185–187, 191, 197, 198, 200, 203, 204, 208, 211, 252–255, 257, 260, 264, 274–276, 290, 388 Two-track model of bereavement, 366–368, 373 Typology, 74, 78, 81, 83, 84, 221, 226
U United States, 199, 218, 267–269, 353 Urbicide, 134, 141–143, 147 USA, 305, 307, 318, 321, 322, 325, 326, 329, 330, 333
V Veterans, 28, 31, 33, 39, 183, 310 Victims, 5, 6, 8–10, 12–17, 27–29, 33–37, 43, 46–48, 195, 197–201, 204, 205, 208–210, 213, 280 Vietnam, 27, 28, 31, 33, 52, 110, 183, 267–270, 272, 274, 318, 359, 394 Vietnam veterans, 89, 329 Vietnamese, 330, 331 Violence, 4, 6, 8–11, 13–22, 30–33, 35–37, 82, 84 Violence of architecture, 134, 144–147
W War, 16, 18, 20, 21, 27, 28, 31, 33, 36, 48, 68–72, 74, 198, 203, 208 War trauma, 118–121, 123, 124, 129, 393 Wararchitecture, 134, 141–143, 147 Weissman, G., 55, 63, 182, 183, 186, 188, 189, 191, 192 Wiesel, E., 53, 54, 56, 64, 185, 187, 188, 202 Wilkomirski, B., 189, 193, 196 Witness, 5, 9, 11, 13, 15, 30, 32, 39, 45, 46, 52, 63, 70, 88, 92–95, 171, 184, 188, 191, 195–202, 204, 205, 207–215, 279, 280, 283, 284, 309, 382, 384, 388 Working-through, 218, 219, 221, 232, 237, 238, 285
