Genealogies of Trauma

Abstract

This chapter begins with an articulation of institutional trauma in the first sense, which views trauma as an object and product of institutional knowledge. To articulate trauma in this sense, this chapter traces the development of dominant knowledges about trauma in the Euro-American psy disciplines and their implications for understandings of trauma. The aim of this analysis is to critically examine dominant trauma paradigms and concepts. Specifically, this chapter examines the two most dominant interpretative frameworks of trauma: Trauma ⇔ PTSD and The Neurobiology of Trauma . This analysis examines how these dominant and highly specific interpretative frameworks obscure the institutional complexities of trauma and reduce experiences of trauma to the level of the individual. On these grounds, it is argued that what is meant by trauma in any given time and place is partial and specific, reflecting dominant paradigms and their interests. Critical and feminist psychological perspectives are then considered to imagine trauma knowledges as inherently institutional. Here it is argued that dominant conceptualizations and interpretations of trauma are not simply descriptive but instead function to construct trauma and traumatized subjects in particular ways through particular sets of knowledge(s).