Experiencing violence is often traumatizing. Violent conflicts are still increasing, and big parts of the world’s population are affected by prolonged atrocities. Ongoing violent conflicts that affect entire communities can lead to trauma. But how is collective trauma experienced on an individual level when it affects the social system of a collective?
A traumatic situation can be described as a life-threatening event that exceeds our initial capacity to cope with it. This produces a feeling of helplessness and insecurity while destroying our belief in the self and the other (Fischer, 2003). In consequence, communities suffer from shared feelings such as mistrust and fear, alongside rigid mindsets and narratives of victimhood, as well as widespread taboos that lead to the silencing of guilt and shame for prolonged periods.Due to high levels of stress, trauma also results in symptoms of hyper-arousal. A person who experiences hyper-arousal can feel easily startled, irritable, anger, agitation and panic. Often times, this comes along with a difficulty to sleep or concentrate. It is only recently that experts discovered that the attempt of numbing these symptoms can be passed on from one generation to the next. Psychic numbing is a tendency of individuals or societies to withdraw attention from past traumatic experiences. It is a reduced response to the external world, including loss of interest in activity, detachment from others, hiding from the outside world, escaping from reality, and not showing many different emotions. These responses enhance the inability to engage emotionally with a traumatic memory, which hinders the process of recovery (Feeny et al. 2000).
Trauma helps us to psychologically cope with memories by, for example, distorting our memory of the event. A recurring feature among communities affected by war is a confusion with the sequence of historical events. Likewise, individuals may suppress the notion that their own group was involved in war crimes and instead associate attacks as defense acts. Persistently produced enemy-images and acting out violence to protect one’s ingroup are behaviors that reinforce these distortions. Beyond that, one common phenomenon is that affected individuals switch between over- and under-stimulation, in the sense of hyper-arousal or numbness. Behind this pendulum stands a vicious circle as both hyper-arousal and numbing are harmful in the long run and can further reinforce conflict dynamics. While trying to avoid specific triggers that might threaten one’s mental fragmentation, one becomes more vulnerable to be negatively confronted with triggers, since long-term avoidance often does not work.
This notion becomes even stronger, taking into account sequential traumatization. This has particularly been proven for people whose reality is marked by everyday discriminatory experiences (e.g. Carter, 2007; Sue, 2007; Kilomba, 2008). In the Palestinian context, sequential traumatization can, for instance, be experienced as continuous harassment at checkpoints, which creates a form of steady stress.
Research on sequential microaggressions shows that these daily experiences themselves can have traumatizing effects that reinforce the already existing trauma-related patterns (see Keilson, 2015). In many of the contexts that we work in, we witness hyper-arousal as palpable high levels of stress and tensions. While anger is an energy that can be used as a transformative power, another common way to deal with unbearable levels of stress is to become numb.
However, affected communities also exhibit resources for resilience that peace work can build on in order to break reinforcing trauma chains. Important resilience-strengthening factors can be strong relationships with family and friends and a shared belief system. Moreover, having a sense of safety and security as opposed to being re-exposed to triggers time and again is vital for resilience.
Collective and Transgenerational Trauma
So how does collective trauma compare to individual trauma? Collective trauma is a not yet completely accomplished process of learning on how to deal with and integrate extreme levels of stress, which impacts social dynamics and structure of a collective. It may lead people to be stuck in conflict dynamics, becoming capable of committing violence against themselves and others. Collective trauma is to be distinguished from the trauma of a large group of individuals that are affected on an individual level. When certain trauma patterns are formed by the group they become part of the shared group reality as so-called collective identity markers (see references König & Reimann 2018). In this case, we refer to it as collective trauma. When such patterns, that serve as coping mechanisms, are passed on to the next generation through parenting, social or genetic transmission, we allude to ‘transgenerational or intergenerational trauma’. “The concept of intergenerational trauma acknowledges that exposure to extremely adverse events impacts individuals to such a great extent that their offspring find themselves grappling with their parents’ post-traumatic state” (Yehuda, 2018). In simple words, the wounds experienced from trauma can be passed on by parenting and by epigenetics, as trauma can leave a mark on the DNA.
One example of transgenerational transmission of trauma can be found throughout several generations in Germany after WWII and the Holocaust: While the first generation often copes with the horror by defaming or trivializing the past and overload of guilt, the second generation shows higher levels of shame as well as resilience. This generation was especially exposed to the contradiction of knowing parts of history, yet at the same time dealing with parents who were not telling the truth and whose upbringing was often marked by parental neglect during the post-war period (Bar-On, 1989). In contrast, the third generation, although not as challenged in their survival needs, still experiences diffuse insecurity as well as shame and dominating feelings of loss and despair. Often, the third generation starts investigating the pieces of the fragmented family legacy, sometimes with obsession. This becomes key in overcoming trauma and building peace (e.g. Reddemann, 2015).
Collective Trauma Can Shape Identities
König and Reimann (2018) refer to three collective identity markers that can hinder the full, constructive and non-fragmented integration of the lived stressful experiences. There can be collective narratives of loss and despair, of guilt and shame, including silencing and taboos, and/or of collective victimhood through narratives such as “we are the (victimized) people because of past atrocities” (ibid.). Shared feelings in this collective identity are dominated by mistrust, insecurity, exaggerated fear and passivity (Becker, 2004). The collective mental models or belief systems are characterized by rigid thinking, scapegoating, prejudices, stereotypes, othering, exclusive norms and values. These elements, combined with increased stress levels and vulnerability, do not favor the ability to empathize, but rather promote aggression, a culture of violence, in-group dynamics and polarisation, thus perpetuating conflict dynamics further.
A trauma-sensitive approach to conflict transformation means working on the transformation of those identity markers towards more inclusive narratives. This also entails strengthening the resilience of affected communities to promote healthy coping strategies.
As forumZFD, we are working on increasing our awareness regarding such dynamics. We strive to learn and share skills on how to cope and how to strengthen resilience. This can be done by creating safe spaces within groups (e.g. women groups or community groups) in which individual experiences can be processed with the support of the community. Oftentimes, trauma-sensitive group structures find it difficult to express experiences through words. In these cases, we strive to use media and art as a proxy for dealing with the past. Finally, exercises that focus on the body rather than the mind, such as yoga and dance can also be a great way to foster resilience. Considering how strongly collective trauma and its effects can influence our daily work at forumZFD, we are committed to developing tools for trauma-sensitivity and to continuously deepen our understanding of cross-generational trauma.
References
Bar-On, Dan (1989). Legacy of Silence: Encounters with Children of the Third Reich. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Becker, David (2004). Dealing with the Consequences of Organised Violence in Trauma Work. In: Austin A., Fisher M., Rospers N. (eds) Transforming Ethnopolitical Conflict. The Berghof Handbook: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden.
Carter, Robert T. (2007). Racism and Psychological and Emotional Injury: Recognizing and Assessing Race-Based Traumatic Stress. The Counseling Psychologist.
Davis, Abiosseh; Nsengiyumva, Celestin; Hyslop, Daniel (2019). Healing Trauma and Building Trust and Tolerance in Rwanda. In: Interpeace Peacebuilding in Practice Interpeace (4). Interpeace; Never Again Rwanda; Sida; United Nations; Trust Matters.
Feeny, Norah C.; Zoellner, Lori A.; Fitzgibbons, Lee A; Eden, B. Foa (2000). Exploring the roles of emotional numbing, depression, and dissociation in PTSD. Journal of Traumatic Stress. 13 (3): 489–497.
Fisher, Simon (2000). Working with Conflict: Skills and Strategies for Action. Birmingham: Zed Books
Keilson, Hans (2005). Die sequentielle Traumatisierung bei Kindern: Untersuchung zum Schicksal jüdischer Kriegswaisen. Gießen, Psychosozial-Verlag.
Kilomba, Grada (2008). Plantation Memories. Episodes of Everyday Racism. Münster: Unrast Verlag.
Reddemann, Luise (2015). Kriegskinder und Kriegsenkel in der Psychotherapie. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta.
Reimann, Cordula & König, Ursula (2017). Collective Trauma and Resilience: Key Concepts in Transforming War-related Identities. Berghof Handbook Dialogue Series No. 11.
Reimann, Cordula & König, Ursula (2018). Closing a gap in conflict transformation: Understanding collective and transgenerational trauma. In: https://www.ximpulse.ch/wp-content/uploads/1806CollectiveTrauma.pdf (accessed 10/12/2019).
Yehuda, Rachel & Lehrner, Amy (2018). Intergenerational transmission of trauma effects: putative role of epigenetic mechanisms. World Psychiatry.