This has become a bit of a catch-word: It catches you. It says, \u201cThis was really painful for the client.\u201d But I confess that I rather wince with the term, as if all psychopathology was due to trauma and no one\u2019s responsible for anything. I\u2019m vulnerable in speaking up because of course some people are really badly traumatized, and that\u2019s the right word. Saying less would be to minimize the nature of their condition.<\/p>\n
Indeed, bringing some people away from their denial and amputation of their own feelings, away from \u201calexithymia\u201d or inability to read their own emotions, and to recognizing how scared or hurt they were is a component in some therapies. However, there\u2019s a grey area. Some folks are really traumatized by what to most would be aggravation; but the opposite is true: Many people are simply bothered by the same thing.<\/p>\n
The word \u201ctrauma\u201d does have the virtue of alleviating the paralyzing force of shame and guilt, but on the other hand, there is the danger of creating a culture of victimhood, as if the person might think, \u201cI can\u2019t help it, I was traumatized.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then what about those who can\u2019t point to a trauma. In fact, some of them have been traumatized, too, and they\u2019ve repressed it, or taken the bad feelings on as their own \u201cfault.\u201d Well, everyone\u2019s got some trauma. I can find some in my background, maybe. Or maybe it\u2019s just stress.<\/p>\n
The word \u201ctrauma,\u201d though, is a manipulation of the audience, as if to say, \u201cLook at this poor, poor fellow, he\u2019s been truamatized. Awwww.\u201d To which there may be a spectrum of responses, ranging from \u201cHaven\u2019t we all; get over it\u201d to \u201cAwww, poor baby, now don\u2019t worry your little head, Momma\u2019s gonna take care of it,\u201d and all gradients in-between. <\/p>\n
I think I object to the psycho-babble word, \u201ctrauma.\u201d It\u2019s gotten so very popular in both victim and some professional circles. I darkly suspect that this is a way of puffing up one\u2019s status. You just do therapy, nyah nyah; I deal with \u201ctrauma,\u201d so I have more value than you. Not that any of this is conscious, it\u2019s more a contemplation about how certain words \u201ccatch on\u201d as memes.<\/p>\n
But the idea of trauma is absorbed by patients who unconsciously seek protection, as if they hope that therapists would say \u201cOooh, she\u2019s been \u2018traumatized,\u2019 so you\u2019d better treat with kid gloves.\u201d Of course I think all clients should be treated gently rather than harshly. Harsh \u201cconfrontation\u201d seems tough and realistic. But there\u2019s a middle ground to be sought that doesn\u2019t reinforce victim-hood as a stance. How much tiptoeing around is needed? It\u2019s hard to be in-between.<\/p>\n
So let\u2019s close this meditation on the semantics of trauma by saying that the word often evokes in me a sense of wanting to rescue mixed with feeling manipulated. Is in fact this person \u201ctraumatized\u201d and if he is, isn\u2019t just about everybody. Or is it that the patient, his advocate, or his therapist is using the trauma word, unaware of the semantic resonances involved. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This has become a bit of a catch-word: It catches you. It says, \u201cThis was really painful for the client.\u201d But I confess that I rather wince with the term, as if all psychopathology was due to trauma and no one\u2019s responsible for anything. I\u2019m vulnerable in speaking up because of course some people are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-psychodrama","category-psychotherapy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2046"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2046"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2047,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2046\/revisions\/2047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}