Trauma Universalization

Trauma is woven within the fabric of history. Being that the world is riddles with natural disasters, violence, war, and accident people have often experienced life altering events. Throughout decades these circumstances have caused tremendous amounts of psychological side effects. In fact, the history of trauma diagnosis and support is a deeply complex one. Initially trauma went undiagnosed and often had a history of having a negative association. The Empire of Trauma An Inquiry Into the Condition of Victimhood by Didier Fassin and Richard Rechtman details this long complicated history. While the history of trauma is riddled with complexities, Fassin and Rechtman detail the development of PTSD, the crisis in Tolouse, and the universalization …show more content…
Once trauma became more recognized the diagnosis started to become more universalized. In universalizing trauma, it becomes increasingly blanketed to explore traumas for all people without looking into the nuances of the trauma invoked onto certain groups. Looking closely at the conflict in Palestine the book studies a couple of different approaches to the evolution for trauma. The conflict goes as follows: “While Medcins sans frontiers still continues to attack Israel and Tsahal in its ‘Palestinian Chronicles,’ Medicines du mode’s latest report condemns the violence of Palestinian armed groups against Israeli civilians” (203). These two binaries show the conflict into exploring trauma. That both groups are experiencing trauma cannot be denied, but that one party fails to see the complex history behind the actions is clear. The conflict in Palestine is clearly lead by one dominating force— Israel. Therefore, to fail to explore this side of the conflict and simply universalize the issue by exploring both sides, undermines the trauma the Palestinian population experiences. Moreover, the process of universalization completely eliminates the personal histories of the people who experience trauma. While all facets of society can experience trauma not all groups of people will be affected by these trauma’s in the same way. The book does a phenomenal job at detailing the problems that occur when people simply recollect people’s stories. As they explain, “what the testimonies written by humanitarian psychiatry offer are histories without history—either individual of collective history” (214). Moreover, “the social effectiveness of trauma does not necessarily produce the historical truth of the victims”