On the field of history there [may] occur: two groups of people, the overpowered and those who overpowered them, joined in the desire that time be turned back and, with it, that history become moral.
Jean Améry
Psychologists and social scientists are increasingly trying to understand the historical, political, and economic roots of trauma
It is increasingly clear that the suffering of many people in the United States and worldwide from PTSD and other forms of trauma cannot be understood or remedied only at the individual level. Recent years have seen the proliferation within psychology of references to the construct of collective trauma, as well as numerous related constructs including community, cultural, historical, intergenerational, racial, shared, social, and structural trauma. This trend is likely related to several historical patterns, including the general expansion of trauma as a concept in professional and lay circles, increasing recognition of the impact of colonialism on racial/ethnic/indigenous minorities and people of the Global South, and rising trends in socio-historical events and forces with traumatizing consequences, ranging from mass shootings to income inequality to natural and technological disasters. The ubiquity of the construct in contemporary psychology suggests its importance, and its foreseeable usefulness for practice and healing in communities.
Our lab is contributing to the effort to delineate the relationship between individual and collective traumas. Some of our work focuses on the social construction of Native American identity by non-Native settlers, and the political role of this ongoing process in maintaining U.S. sovereignty. Other studies investigate the hidden force of the carceral system in the United States, which directly impacts millions and disproportionately affects historically disadvantaged communities. Another area of applied research involves working with communities that have experienced environmental injustice in the form of contamination.
Beyond these separate projects, we are also working to understand the commonalities and divergences between different forms of collective trauma, in the first systematic review of all variants of this construct in the psychological literature.