Collective trauma

Global impacts

Traumatic events witnessed by an entire society can stir up collective sentiment, often resulting in a shift in that society's culture and mass actions.

Well known collective traumas include: the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, slavery in the United States, the Nanjing Massacre, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Trail of Tears, the Great Irish Famine, attack on Pearl Harbor, the MS Estonia in Sweden, the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, the Halabja chemical attack, the Palestinian Nakba, the COVID-19 pandemic, and various others.

Collective traumas have been shown to play a key role in group identity formation (see: Law of Common Fate). During World War II, a US submarine, the USS Puffer (SS-268), came under several hours of depth charge attack by a Japanese surface vessel until the ship became convinced the submarine had somehow escaped. Psychological studies later showed that crewmen transferred to the submarine after the event were never accepted as part of the team. Later, US naval policy was changed so that after events of such psychological trauma, the crew would be dispersed to new assignments.

Rehabilitation of survivors becomes extremely difficult when an entire nation has experienced such severe traumas as war, genocide, torture, massacre, etc. Treatment of individuals is less effective when society itself is traumatized. Trauma remains chronic and can potentially reproduce itself as long as social causes are not addressed and perpetrators continue to enjoy impunity. Society as a whole may suffer from a form of chronic trauma. However, ways to heal collective trauma have recently been created.

During the Algerian War, Frantz Omar Fanon found his practice of treatment of native Algerians ineffective due to the continuation of the horror of a colonial war. He emphasized about the social origin of traumas, joined the liberation movement and urged oppressed people to purge themselves of their degrading traumas through their collective liberation struggle. He made the following remarks in his letter of resignation, as the Head of the Psychiatry Department at the Blida-Joinville Hospital in Algeria:

"If psychiatry is the medical technique that aims to enable man no longer to be a stranger to his environment, I owe it to myself to affirm that the Arab, permanently an alien in his own country, lives in a state of absolute depersonalization".

Inculcation of horror and anxiety, through widespread torture, massacre, genocide and similar coercive measures has happened frequently in human history. There are plenty of examples in our modern history. Tyrants have always used their technique of "psychological artillery" in an attempt to cause havoc and confusion in the minds of people and hypnotize them with intimidation and cynicism. The result is a collective trauma that will pass through generations. Collective trauma can be alleviated through cohesive and collective efforts such as recognition, remembrance, solidarity, communal therapy and massive cooperation.

Multiple international scientific studies have shown how the emotional states of a mother has a direct impact on the developing nervous system of their child and the ensuing development of their brain systems over time.

A study conducted in the aftermath of the Six day war in Israel in 1967 for example, found that women who were pregnant during the wars occurrence were statistically more likely to have had children with schizophrenia. What happened at the collective level of the country, was directly reflected in the individual neurobiological systems of the infants in the womb. Due to the direct correlation/connection between the nervous system and every other organ in our bodies, collective trauma is also evident at the cellular level. Trauma can thus not be understood in purely individual terms.

Collective trauma does not merely reflect a historical fact or the recollection of a traumatic event that happened to a group of people. Collective trauma suggests that the tragedy is represented in the collective memory of the group, and like all forms of memory it comprises not only a reproduction of the events, but also an ongoing reconstruction of the trauma in an attempt to make sense of it. Collective memory of a trauma is different from individual memory because collective memory persists beyond the lives of the direct survivors of the events, and is remembered by group members that may be far removed from the traumatic events in time and space.

Impacts on Mental Health

Collective traumas on the societal level can lead to a vast range on mental health problems, including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, and disassociation. With collective traumas including events like natural disasters and even historical traumas like The Holocaust, the psychological impact of these vary based on direct and indirect experience. These traumas can result in psychological conditions to prevail, for example we see how PTSD and Alexithymia were developed by survivors of the earthquakes in L'Aquila, Italy. PTSD symptoms can include re-experiencing your traumatic event, avoidance, and emotional numbing such as alexithymia, and many more emotional and physical symptoms. These symptoms and the condition of PTSD are not limited to the victims themselves, but generations after traumatic events as well, typically up to two generations, which can be attributed to a combination of epigenetics and collective cultural trauma.

The mental health conditions due to collective trauma are not limited to PTSD, with studies showing higher levels of low self esteem in the children of holocaust survivors and higher levels of anxiety and depression in those who have experienced a collective historical trauma, like the Native Americans. Therefore, experiencing a collective trauma directly or indirectly can result in many mental health conditions for the collective.

Collective cultural trauma

Cultural trauma is a form of collective trauma that is seen on a societal and macro-level. With collective trauma being experienced communally- psychological, and mental health consequences of cultural trauma can be explored from individual and community-level perspectives, factoring in family dynamics and geopolitical factors that can amplify the trauma experienced. The Holocaust provides an example of how survivors and their children experienced impaired functioning and poor adjustment to their environments.

Studies around refugees and immigrants also indicate how cultural trauma as a collective has vast negative mental health affects and how that is transmitted throughout communities and then generations through epigenetic transmission, but also through parental care that is dictated by family dynamics set by communities. An example of this can be witnessed through Sri Lanka, where a war and tsunami caused collective trauma to be experienced. On multiple levels, Sri Lankans who were affected by the war and tsunami saw changed in the dynamics of family relations, a lack of trust between community members and child rearing changed as well. These changed the cultural norms in Sri Lankan society, and created a negative environment where communities tended to be more dependent, passive, silent, without leadership, mistrustful, and suspicious. As a collectivist culture, this shared trauma changed the dynamic of communities in a significant way, and changed the cultural identities of many Sri Lankans. This highlights how collective trauma has an impact on cultural identity on a large scale.

Healing collective trauma

Communities can seek to heal collective traumas at the macro level. Individuals and groups can also seek healing from the impact of collective trauma.

Some examples of efforts towards healing collective trauma at the societal level include the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Africa), a restorative justice commission set up to facilitate healing from Apartheid in South Africa, memorials such as the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, and community arts projects such as the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.

Collective trauma at the identity group level can present further complicating factors for healing, as it is often ongoing. Therapist, writer, and founder of the Embodiment Institute, Prentis Hemphill explains:

Oppression is actually how society organizes itself to control and distribute trauma.

One of the things we’re arguing is that, what oppression ends up being fundamentally, is the organization and concentration of traumatic experiences, in certain communities, or with certain peoples, and the removal of, or reduction of, the net or supports it takes, or the time, or the resources, to heal from or transform those traumatic experiences. That is what oppression ultimately does.

When we’re talking about the generational trauma or collective trauma that communities experience, we’re talking about the way it has been concentrated in our communities and the resources that have been pulled away or criminalized or interrupted, so that it becomes more and more difficult for communities to actually heal from those traumatic experiences."

Therapist Parker Schneider explains, "Ongoing traumas hinder the healing process, making it difficult for survivors to fully heal, or even just cope with the impacts of past traumas. Trauma experts emphasize the necessity of distancing oneself from ongoing trauma, particularly as the first stage in trauma recovery is the establishment of safety." Despite this challenge, communities experiencing collective trauma can create safety within individual and community relationships and seek healing through mutual support, activism, creative arts, and more.

Despite the challenges of healing from collective trauma, many theorists emphasize its importance as a factor for social change. In the Stanford Social Innovation Review, authors Ijeoma Njaka & Duncan Peacock examine trauma in the context of social change, arguing that trauma inhibits and limits our sustained attention to the complex crises we currently face. They write:

Writer and founder of the Academy of Inner Science Thomas Hübl suggests that one of the most important connections for healing collective and intergenerational trauma is between science and spirit, which he argues brings together the "double helix of ancient wisdom and contemporary understanding." Humans experience well-being when we have agency, dignity, and health, and are connected to ourselves, each other, and our world in sustainable and life-giving ways. Trauma is the disconnection from these things. Those working on social change, therefore, need to identify the connections and disconnections in the issues they care about. They also need support when they experience disconnection in their own lives.