Introduction
Trauma: Explorations in Memory by Cathy Caruth
The first book’s author, Cathy Caruth, defines her work as a scientific psychological approach to the study of trauma. This book focuses on the work of personal human traumas, delving into the causes of their formation and how they affect a person. Considering the concept of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), scientists are trying to identify the motives for how traumatic episodes are formed in the human psyche. The term was first introduced in 1980 by the American Psychiatric Association (Caruth, 3). Some of the symptoms of this disorder are intrusive, disturbing memories, nightmares about a past event, and panic attacks. The author pays much attention to the study of how trauma influenced the development of psychoanalysis as a science. Personal trauma becomes intertwined with the culture in this area when too many people have experienced something difficult. Trauma pushes us to rethink and analyze past events that happened in life (Caruth, 4). At the same time, it can be any memories not associated with anything wrong. The author studies how thoughts about trauma take over a person to the point that they begin to think about it more.
Introduction & Chapter 1 from Trauma: A Social Theory by Jeffrey C. Alexander
The second book by Jeffrey C. Alexander explores the topics of trauma experienced by society and why people are so interested in them. Great moral and ethical upheavals, such as the Nanjing massacre or the Holocaust, left a significant imprint on the morale of people and their ability to perceive reality and think about future development. Cultural trauma is formed in the minds of people when they realize that they experienced some terrible event against their will and, in doing so, received noticeable moral traces (Alexander 255). Traumas are people’s personal and social experiences that form their ideas of the future. The author argues that in most cases, such moral trauma prevails in people’s thoughts over their plans for the future. This may indicate that people’s hyper-concentration on experiencing everyday adverse events leaves a significant mark on cultural memory. One of the main questions the author poses to himself is how a particular historical event can turn into an international symbol of suffering and moral deviations. The uniqueness of an event may be part of the reason why it can become a cultural phenomenon that is so memorable. Display and representation also play an essential role in how society will further perceive the event shown.
The Two Articles Concerning Each Other
Even though the authors’ approaches to the study of the topic are quite different, they have certain common motives. Both authors are interested in studying the traumatization of societies and cultural influences and their transformation through common negative consequences. Witnessing traumatic events is important because this way you can understand exactly how the trauma occurs and why a person cannot forget about it. The difference is that Caruth focuses more on the culture of one person and only slightly affects the mass. Cultural trauma is considered in Trauma: A Social Theory as a factor in the joint redemption of a terrible past event that people want to remember (Alexander, 4). However, shared traumas may not always be real, but the events experienced by people may not always be a symbolic representation. From this point of view, shocks are speculations about what could have happened and what happened. Thus, people’s constant memories and reflective moods unconsciously shape their futures.
Significantly different from these views is the book Trauma: Explorations in Memory, which makes central the disorder that concentrates all the attention of the person on the traumatic event of the past. Although both authors talk about the trauma that the people collectively endured, they use a completely different approach to explain it. Thus, Cathy Caruth attempts to explain a person’s focus on traumatic experiences through PTSD, which prevents the individual from continuing his normal life. Trauma in the form of PTSD cannot be transmitted directly, however, it can manifest itself in other people in the form of limited symptoms such as a depressive state. The social and cultural component here is that people begin to share their fears of the past and in such cases, they can find similar interlocutors (Caruth 6). Thus, after a shock, recovery always begins. The authors differ as much as possible in these approaches since Alexander, in his book, did not allow reflection on why significant changes occur. Instead, on the contrary, his version says that people cannot unite into a strong society while they are shackled by anger or pain from a shared trauma. Despite the commonality of the past event for this author, it is not unifying. Thus, it can be said that the two books see the same events in different ways, but their interpretation is different.
The Role of Representation
Trauma representation is an essential element in helping people cope with difficult situations they have experienced in life. However, in the context of the whole society, this may be an even more critical aspect, which both authors talk about in specific ways. Alexander argues that traumatic joint experience represents a trauma shared by many people as a significant threat to a healthy society and people’s self-determination (15). Thus, art is presented as a method by which it is possible to reduce the damage caused to society significantly. Through the prism of creating something new, the authors of both books are trying to convey that this may be a way for humanity to struggle with the fact that he does not want to experience painful memories. Through the representation of negative experiences, many creators can voice their opinions and support those who have experienced similar feelings (Nakamura 53). The representation of the traumatic experience in the case of a person who has PTSD is significantly different because the person constantly remembers what happened, and this does not allow them to come to a calm state. In this case, the result of a terrible event, on the contrary, is far from art and cannot entirely create or reorganize society. To endow art with the quality of being present in a form that is not a representation of trauma but rather the effect of that representation can have an indefinite effect and serve as a transformative factor.
Psychoanalytic analysis of trauma is essential for understanding what can cause various kinds of transformations in society. It is impossible to fully transform memories into art without re-experiencing the memories that drive the artist to create. Examining traumatic experiences is essential, as ignoring and excluding trauma can lead to collective melancholy (Masiero et al. 6). In addition, stereotyping trauma and its appropriation by political forces lead to the formation of an unproblematic image of the past and the profanation of trauma. Art approaches the experience that humanity has lived, which is valuable for understanding what people’s memories are.
Conclusion
Individuals’ specific traumatic experiences have reconstructed their cultural identity over some time. The author’s concept of trauma primarily aims to discover what role trauma plays in society. However, in addition to this, much attention is also paid to the current state of affairs to which trauma has led in the past. At the same time, collective memories of trauma differ significantly from individual ones and are not necessarily based on reality. It does not appear during the event itself due to its other experience.
Further exploration is how sociological and psychic traumas can intertwine and influence one another. The authors of the books under consideration do not clearly distinguish between the sociological and psychological concepts of trauma. The sociological aspect only implies that people feel that their people have experienced something terrible in the past but do not directly experience it. This topic has received little attention in books and scientific papers, so it has research potential.
Works Cited
Caruth, C. (Ed.). (1995). Trauma: Explorations in memory. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Jeffrey, Alexander. Trauma: A Social Theory. Polity. 2012.
Masiero, Marianna, et al. “From Individual to Social Trauma: Sources of Everyday Trauma in Italy, the US and UK during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, 2020, pp. 513-519. Web.
Nakamura, Lisa. “Feeling Good about Feeling Bad: Virtuous Virtual Reality and the Automation of Racial Empathy.” Journal of Visual Culture, 2020, pp. 47-64. Web.