Être victime : généalogie d’une condition clinique

Abstract

Post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) were rediscovered following the publication in 1980 of the American DSM–III revised classification of mental disorders, and have acquired increasing visibility and importance in psychiatry. It is the only psychiatric diagnosis that can result in possible financial compensation, as it is based upon exterior accidental etiology, that is to say, PTSD, a diagnosis that is one of the few that has been accepted, and not only for financial considerations. PTSD is an example of the break from the habitually negative image of mental illness. However, the rediscovery of PTSD has demonstrated that it is not the semiology that has been altered by the DSM–III revised version, but the approach to considering the traumatism and above all, the traumatized victim. In this sense, PTSD has largely contributed to the emergence of a certain recognition of these victims, their status, and their specific problems; however, this has also led to a reassessment of the victim's condition: — a human condition, that of being a victim, has now been accorded a clinical category — that of suffering from PTSD. This article reviews the genealogy of this clinical condition, and shows from an anthropological point of view how it is based upon a deep-seated change in the attitude towards the veracity of traumatic narration.