Unsettling trauma: from individual pathology to social pathology

Abstract

Rather than assuming that psychological terms mirror natural categories in the world and that the task of the helping professions is to find ways to discover, diagnose and treat these categories, our goal is to inquire about the status of the categories as an aid to then focusing on therapeutic responses. To that end, we unsettle trauma by exploring its social ontology as a disorder as well as its grammar. Feminist and cultural critiques of PTSD illustrate the limitations of the dominant discourse of trauma, moving trauma from individual pathology to social pathology. We offer two illustrations from the family therapy literature that draw upon polyphony, inner dialogues and the creation of new narratives to expand beyond the pathologising potentials of the discourse of trauma.Practitioner points Understanding the concept of trauma as a socially embedded construction is a necessary first step towards recognising its different applications in therapeutic work The dialogic/constructionist stance taken here assumes that meaning and understanding are shaped by discourse and interaction The taken‐for‐granted meanings associated with trauma need to be questioned Practitioners may then assess when the use of a PTSD diagnosis might import individualising and objectifying assumptions that undermine the goals of systemic family therapy