Psychological Wounds Research Articles

All wounds speak – performing trauma/witnessing grief

While ‘trauma' has become a buzzword encompassing any distressing event, its definition as an unassimilated psychological wound, unresolved and recurrent, also means that it cannot ever be completely known. Trauma therapy seeks to reintegrate experiences, breaking the cycle of perpetual suffering through fragmentary recollection. Drama and performance art offer a platform for this reintegration, potentially facilitating healing. However, the fine line between therapeutic confrontation and re-traumatization necessitates careful navigation, avoiding triggering negative emotions. Crucially, not all traumatic events lead to PTSD; resilience and communal support can mitigate the effects of distressing experiences, as seen in instances of shared acceptance and forgiveness. Theatre's role in addressing trauma lies in its ability to bear witness, creating spaces for communal acknowledgment and shared grieving. While contemporary performances often revel in discomfort, embracing unresolved narratives, they prompt reflection on the limitations of representation. Art's transformative potential lies not in explicit curative intent but in its expression of unresolved complexities of human experience. Through patience, acceptance, and a refusal to impose meaning, creative arts can serve as a site for healing, fostering empathy and connection amidst the fragmentary experience of what Freud called ‘traumatic neurosis,’ what has since come to be called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Exploring resilience and trauma: a comparative analysis of 'The Comfort Book' and 'The Body Keeps the Score'

In the ever-evolving field of psychiatry, understanding the intricate relationship between mental health, trauma, and recovery remains crucial. Recent literature has offered profound insights into these connections, with particular focus on how individuals navigate their mental health challenges. Two recent works—Matt Haig's The Comfort Book (2021) and Bessel van der Kolk's The Body Keeps the Score (2014)—have garnered significant attention for their distinct yet complementary approaches to addressing psychological well-being. While The Comfort Book provides a reflective, almost meditative guide to fostering resilience in everyday life, The Body Keeps the Score delves deeply into the neurological and physiological impacts of trauma, offering a more clinical yet accessible approach to understanding and treating psychological wounds. This review aims to critically examine how these books contribute to the discourse on mental health, highlighting their relevance to both practitioners and patients in the field of psychiatry. These books, although different in style and scope, serve as valuable resources. They provide readers with practical tools and theoretical knowledge to better understand the complexities of trauma and resilience. The comparative analysis of these works will explore their effectiveness in enhancing our understanding of mental health, resilience, and the journey towards healing.

Lay-Led Intervention for War and Refugee Trauma

The global refugee crisis disproportionately affects the Muslim world. Forced displacement often results in trauma-related mental health issues. Effective psychotherapy exists, but there are barriers to uptake by refugee groups as well as a lack of culturally appropriate interventions. To examine the efficacy of a brief, lay-led, mosque-based intervention, Islamic Trauma Healing (ITH), adapting empirically supported cognitive behavioral principles to improve mental health and well-being. In a randomized clinical trial, 101 participants received ITH or active assessment but delayed intervention (waiting list [WL]) in mosques and virtually in Seattle, Washington, and Columbus, Ohio, and were assessed through 12-week follow-up. Data were collected from July 14, 2018, through July 14, 2022, and data analysis was conducted from March 13 to July 31, 2023. United States-based refugees from Somalia who experienced a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) Criterion A trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) reexperiencing or avoidance. Analyses were intention-to-treat, using full information likelihood for missing data. Islamic Trauma Healing included psychoeducation, discussion of the lives of prophets who had undergone trauma, and informal prayer turning to Allah about the trauma, incorporating cognitive restructuring and imaginal exposure. Lay-leader training is purposely brief: two 4-hour sessions with weekly supervision. The primary outcome was PTSD severity (measured with the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale for DSM-5 [PDS-5]). Secondary outcomes included depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9), somatic symptoms (Somatic Symptoms Severity-8), and quality of well-being (World Health Organization Five Well-Being Index). Analyses were intention-to-treat. Analyses were based on all 101 randomized participants (92 [91.1%] women; 9 [8.9%] men; mean [SD] age, 46.5 [12.02] years) with baseline mean (SD) PDS-5 score of 31.62 (16.55) points. There were significant differences in PTSD severity (d = -0.67), depression (d = -0.66), and well-being (d = 0.71), comparing ITH vs WL after the intervention. Gains were maintained through 12-week follow-up. Islamic Trauma Healing was consistent with religious and cultural practices (mean [SD], 3.8 [0.43]) and promoted community reconciliation (mean [SD], 3.8 [0.42]). In this randomized clinical trial of a brief, lay-led mental health intervention, ITH proved superior to WL. The findings suggest that ITH has the potential to provide an easily trainable and scalable intervention, incorporating Islam and empirically supported principles, that addresses the psychological wounds of war and refugee trauma. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03502278.

Navigating the Storm: Coping with Conflict and Political Change for Mental Health Resilience

The severe impact of conflicts-which often occur in chaotic and unstable environments-has on mental health, both for people and communities. South-East Asia incurs a disproportionately significant invisible cost to mental health due to persistent political instability, global conflicts, and terrorism.1 These events may induce anxiety and stress, which may culminate in an array of mental health issues, including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and generalized anxiety disorders. These circumstances are rendered more catastrophic by the continuous threat of violence, displacement, and loss, which makes it challenging for people to retain their resilience in terms of mental health. For example, the prolonged conflict in Kashmir has had a significant impact on people’s mental health in the region.2 Several psychological wounds are the result of sustained violence and uncertainty. Similarly, millions of people in the region have experienced suffering and grief because of terrorism and political unrest.2 Communities impacted by these crises in these areas have a cumulative strain on their mental health.3 The general well-being of these communities is declining due to various factors, including increased stress levels, restricted access to healthcare, and an atmosphere of uncertainty.4 The visible psychological impact on people and their neighbours underscores the importance of acknowledging the broader implications of these crises on mental health. To develop and maintain mental health resilience amid these challenges, people must learn coping mechanisms.5 Recognizing the seriousness of this issue is crucial, but so is offering those impacted resources and assistance. Numerous therapies and coping mechanisms may be helpful. Teaching individuals about the psychological consequences of political unrest and violence is one of academia’s most essential roles. Academic institutions may reduce stigma, increase awareness, and encourage people to seek assistance by conducting research and implementing educational programmes.6 To assist people and communities in overcoming trauma and developing resilience, mental health practitioners can provide psychosocial interventions like counselling and therapy.7 For those impacted, establishing support systems within communities may be a beneficial resource. These networks may allow people access to mental health experts and a safe atmosphere to discuss their feelings and experiences. Mental health professionals can conduct workshops on resilience building, and these sessions can offer valuable strategies and skills to improve psychological resilience in the face of hardship.8 Access to Services for Mental Health is imperative for governments and non-governmental organizations to guarantee that mental health treatments are easily accessible to individuals who require them.9 This involves encouraging the education and placement of mental health specialists in conflict-affected regions. Understanding and resolving the mental health issues brought on by political unrest and violence are critical tasks for academia. Research in this area is crucial to clarify the intricate relationship between political instability and mental health. Scholars can make the following contributions: Research and Data Analysis: Academic institutions might research to understand better the psychological impacts of political unrest and violence in Pakistan and South-east Asia.10 We can determine patterns and risk factors by gathering information and examining the mental health conditions of impacted groups. Policy Recommendations: Based on their research, academia might advocate policies to facilitate better access to mental health care in places affected by violence.11 When tackling the mental health problem, countries and international organizations can follow these guidelines. Public Awareness Initiatives: To de-stigmatize mental health concerns and motivate people to seek therapy, academia may initiate public awareness initiatives. Advertisements might also inform the public about the distinct symptoms and signs of diseases linked to trauma. Training and Capacity Building: Educational establishments have the potential to provide instruction to mental health professionals who can work in areas of conflict. The training may concentrate on culturally aware methods and the difficulties brought on by trauma associated with conflicts.9 There cannot be denying the relationship between political unrest, global conflicts, and terrorism and the impact they have on mental health. These situations have a profound impact on people and communities, frequently resulting in severe mental health problems. In addition to academia’s active participation, coping methods and treatments can assist in lessening these difficulties and support individuals who require it. Prioritizing mental health as the foundation of resilience is crucial as we address the ongoing conflicts in these areas. To address this critical issue and ensure that people and communities can manage the storm of political transition with their mental health, academic research, community support, and government policy must collaborate.

Finding Her Voice Through Scriptotherapy: Marina Nemat’s Journey of Reclaiming Subjectivity after Trauma

Scriptotherapy, a form of writing therapy proposed by Suzette Henke, is gaining recognition in literary research but remains underrepresented in studies of Iranian diasporic literature, which often focus on identity crisis and Orientalist discourse. This paper explores the application of scriptotherapy in Marina Nemat’s memoirs, Prisoner of Tehran (2007) and After Tehran (2010), revealing the significant role of therapeutic writing in reclaiming subjectivity fragmented by trauma. As a teenager advocating for legislative reformation in 1980s Iran, Nemat faced legal consequences and two years of imprisonment, leaving enduring psychological wounds. Years after her release, disturbing memories and enduring silence compelled Nemat to utilize writing for catharsis. Through writing, Nemat confronts and transcends her haunting past, embarking on a transformative journey of healing and reclaiming her voice within an intersubjective realm. This paper emphasizes the importance of an audience as witnesses to trauma and discusses obstacles faced by women who bear witness, particularly when their testimonies involve institutional abuse and patriarchal constraints. This analysis demonstrates scriptotherapy’s transformative potential, empowering trauma survivors like Nemat to heal from the wounds of their traumatic pasts, ultimately enabling them to regain a profound sense of subjectivity, despite doubts about the authenticity of their narratives.

The Clinical Evolutions of Surveillance and Violence During Three Contemporary US Crises: Opioid Overdose, COVID-19, and Racial Reckoning

In 2020, three crises coalesced to transform the clinical care landscape of addiction medicine in the United States (US). The opioid overdose crisis (crisis #1), which had been contributing to excess US mortality for over two decades, worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic (crisis #2). The racial reckoning (crisis #3) spurred by the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police impacted clinical care, especially in safety net clinical settings where the majority of people targeted by police violence, and other forms of structural violence, receive healthcare to mend both physical and psychological wounds. Collectively, the three crises changed how providers and patients viewed their experiences of clinical surveillance and altered their relationships to the violence of US healthcare. Drawing from two different research studies conducted during the years preceding and during the COVID-19 pandemic (2017–2022) with low income, safety net patients at risk for opioid overdose and their care providers, I analyze the relationship between surveillance and violence in light of changes wrought by these three intersecting health and social crises. I suggest that shifting perceptions about surveillance and violence contributed to clinical care innovations that offer greater patient autonomy and transform critical components of addiction medicine care practice.

Going to the Bittersweet Roots vs. New World Blues in Gurnah’s Gravel Heart- A Psychological Analysis

This descriptive qualitative paper aims at presenting a close reading of the protagonist Salim’s reminiscences in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Gravel Heart in terms of an eclectic approach toward representation of trauma. Psychological trauma refers to the unbearable, untreatable, and unspeakable psychological wounds remaining on the subject’s unconsciousness. The most widely used method for studying trauma is based on Freud's, (1995) psychoanalytic study. Alongside with Freud’s theory, Kristal- Andersson’s(2000) and Felititi & etal.,’s (1998) studies are also used to draw the descriptions and explanations of trauma in Sali, the protagonist of Gravel Heart. Also, this study is a clarion call to the authorities at the top to provide a realistic technique and manner of working with immigrants in counseling and provide able and humanitarian assistance- services as the study also found out like many other real heroes, Salim a victim of bitter childhood and as an immigrant.Abdul Razak Gurnah,who was honoured with the Nobel Prize for Literature (2021) for his true and passionate retelling of the woes, longings of immigrants in general, and specifically Africans. in Gravel Heart, one among his evocative oeuvre retells the ties that bind’ as well as ‘the ties that fray.’ (Telegraph) Hence this study would pave way to the emergence of likewise multidisciplinary studies to blend psychological frameworks to investigate the causes of real as well as fictional character’s trauma.

(Un)Palatable encounters: Melancholic appetites in Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist

ABSTRACT Drawing on scholarship on racial melancholia and food studies, this article traces the melancholic appetites manifested in Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist and examines how alimentary desires stand in for the consumptive desires of the US nation state in relation to the model minority as well as the recuperative mourning undertaken by the protagonist Changez upon his return to Pakistan. A double encounter with Lahori cuisine and melancholic testimony in the novel pushes the American interlocutor towards acknowledging a political responsibility for the consequences of US actions during the War on Terror. Hamid’s work highlights how melancholic subjects challenge nationalist narratives of racial progress by unearthing those racialized experiences which have been submerged, silenced, or underemphasized. This article thus highlights the possibility raised by the novel for grieving and healing the psychological wounds of racism so that Changez, the minoritized subject, does not remain locked into generational cycles of dejection.

Redefining Jihad in Da’wah Against Radicalism Among Female Ulama in West Java

Objective: The objective of this study is to explore the construction of jihad through redefining jihad within the context of da’wah (religious outreach) against radicalism among female ulama (clerics) in West Java. The study aims to understand the meaning, motives, and experiences associated with this construction of jihad, particularly in the context of addressing religious radicalism affecting women in the regions of Garut, Tasikmalaya, and Tasikmalaya City.
 
 Method: The research methodology employed is constructivist qualitative, utilizing data collection techniques such as interviews, observation, and documentation. Purposive sampling was used to select informants, including female ulama, women leaders and activists, radicalism observers, and members of the Executive Board of the Indonesian Ulama Council in the specified districts. The study focuses on the religious approach taken through da'wah in women's taklim assemblies (Islamic study groups) to construct jihad as a solution to the problem of religious radicalism among women.
 
 Result: The study reveals several key aspects of the construction of jihad in da’wah against radicalism among female ulama: Meaning of Jihad: The jihad of female clerics involves preaching, contextualization within hijrah (migration), attendance at taklim assemblies, and fostering diversity. Motives for Jihad: Motives include healing women's psychological wounds, providing a dialogue space for congregations, fostering tolerance among congregations, addressing radicalism targeting women, and broadening women's understanding of moderate and humanist Islamic teachings. Experiences of Jihad: Experiences of jihad include participation in taklim assembly studies, engaging in open dialogic spaces, assisting the wives of former terrorist convicts, providing mental health therapy, critiquing da'wah on social media, strengthening national insight, and providing education on the rights and relationships of husbands and wives in the family.
 
 Conclusion: In conclusion, the study demonstrates that the construction of jihad in da’wah against radicalism among female ulama involves multifaceted meanings, motives, and experiences. The efforts of female ulama in addressing religious radicalism encompass preaching, dialogue, education, and psychological support. By redefining jihad in this manner, female ulama contribute significantly to countering radicalism, fostering tolerance, and promoting a broad, moderate understanding of Islam among congregations, particularly women, in the specified regions of West Java.

Anomalies in Collective Victimhood in Post-War Japan: ‘Hiroshima’ As a Victimisation Symbol for the Collective National Memory of War

In the aftermath of war, people need visions that (re)unite them and overcome the psychological wounds they have incurred. The post-war Japanese needed narratives that could help them to rebuild their war-torn self-image. They subscribed to a story of Hiroshima being the first city to be demolished by an atomic bomb. Through this, Hiroshima became a national symbol, and the Japanese regarded themselves as victims of war, which effectively overrode their sense of shame and of responsibility for the war. As this process was aimed internally to serve as the backbone of post-war recovery, it did not turn the Japanese against the United States, and thus Japanese collective victimhood includes the following three anomalies: first, the absence of an enemy; second, a lack of aggressiveness; and third, the irrelevance of recovery. This article, therefore, challenges the existing theory of collective victimhood using the case of post-war Japan.

“Actually, the psychological wounds are more difficult than physical injuries:” a qualitative analysis of the impacts of attacks on health on the personal and professional lives of health workers in the Syrian conflict

IntroductionAttacks on healthcare in armed conflict have far-reaching impacts on the personal and professional lives of health workers, as well as the communities they serve. Despite this, even in protracted conflicts such as in Syria, health workers may choose to stay despite repeated attacks on health facilities, resulting in compounded traumas. This research explores the intermediate and long-term impacts of such attacks on healthcare on the local health professionals who have lived through them with the aim of strengthening the evidence base around such impacts and better supporting them.MethodsWe undertook purposive sampling of health workers in northwest and northeast Syria; we actively sought to interview non-physician and female health workers as these groups are often neglected in similar research. In-depth interviews (IDIs) were conducted in Arabic and transcribed into English for framework analysis. We used an a priori codebook to explore the short- and long-term impacts of attacks on the health workers and incorporated emergent themes as analysis progressed.ResultsA total of 40 health workers who had experienced attacks between 2013 and 2020 participated in IDIs. 13 were female (32.5%). Various health cadres including doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, students in healthcare and technicians were represented. They were mainly based in Idlib (39.5%), and Aleppo (37.5%) governorates. Themes emerged related to personal and professional impacts as well as coping mechanisms. The key themes include firstly the psychological harms, second the impacts of the nature of the attacks e.g. anticipatory stress related to the ‘double tap’ nature of attacks as well as opportunities related to coping mechanisms among health workers.ConclusionViolence against healthcare in Syria has had profound and lasting impacts on the health workforce due to the relentless and intentional targeting of healthcare facilities. They not only face the challenges of providing care for a conflict-affected population but are also part of the community themselves. They also face ethical dilemmas in their work leading to moral distress and moral injury. Donors must support funding for psychosocial support for health workers in Syria and similar contexts; the focus must be on supporting and enhancing existing context-specific coping strategies.

Northern Irish Migrants in Glasgow and the Troubles in Great Britain: Echoes of Conflict in a ‘Home Away from Home’

Abstract This article diversifies and deepens our understanding of Northern Irish settlement in Great Britain during the era of the Troubles (c.1969–1998) by exploring a previously under-researched destination: the West of Scotland. Featuring oral history interviews with Northern Irish migrants in Glasgow, it considers how centuries of cultural exchange between the two places shaped migrants’ memories and subjectivities. Our narrators’ childhoods in Northern Ireland were punctuated by sectarian rancour and conflict. The presence in Scotland of similar – albeit less violent or systemic – sectarian attitudes often acted as mnemonic triggers to a conflict migrants felt they had left behind, reopening psychological wounds and reviving repressed traumas. Informed by theoretical conceptions of home, the analysis examines convergences between home and elsewhere, disrupting the idea of migration as a severance between the two. The article therefore offers a new perspective on both the Northern Irish presence in Great Britain and on interreligious relations in the West of Scotland.

A subaltern civil war: Precariat in-Fighting in Murakami Ryu’s Popular Hits of the Showa Era

ABSTRACT Published just a few years after the beginning of Japan’s Lost Decade, Murakami Ryu’s 1994 novel Popular Hits of the Showa Era posited that this new economic reality inflicted deep psychological wounds on individuals who were already deeply fractured. Within this text the invisible violence of post-Bubble Japan’s social order is made explicit through a low-stakes, yet hyperviolent, guerilla war undertaken by a set of ludicrous and narcissistic characters whose increasingly deadly attacks are met with public indifference. Within the consumer-capitalist social order, personal satisfaction is the paramount goal (McGowan 2004, 11–12). However, this system fosters the belief that it is necessary to be hostile and mistrustful of others (McGowan 2004, 177–179). These aspects of consumer-capitalism have warped the psyches of the characters in this novel so deeply that even extreme violence is met with apathy. The deaths of others are viewed as a threat to their ego, rather than a tragedy. Rather than coalescing into a new social order in response to lives made hollow by consumer-capitalism, individuals in this novel are instead pulled apart. Blind to the violence that is perpetrated against them by consumer capitalism, Murakami’s characters believe that their irrationality is rational (Kalekin-Fishman 2008, 537).

Refugees and Their Unforeseen Future

Introduction:The current hybrid war in Ukraine clearly shows the impacts of modern warfare on civilians. Infrastructure, including healthcare facilities, energy sources, and every entity supporting the lifeline of the people are under attack, leaving no options but to leave the country for those who can. Since the outbreak of the conflict, over three million Ukrainian women and children have migrated to the neighboring countries. Although women and children might be the healthiest groups among refugees, they create other challenges within healthcare.Method:Qualitative and quantitative methods which describes all possible impacts of the war on the refugees’ situation in three periods of time.Migration: During this period, besides the risk of trauma, there are other types of diseases such as infectious diseases that influence the outcome of the migration.Settlement: This period consists of emergency physical and psychological conditions that bring the refugees to the hospitals. Hygenic issues and exposure to new diseases such as Covid-19 can be part of this period. Additionally, there might be social adjustment issues that need to be discussed.The post-conflict: Consists of PTSD and other psychological impacts of the war, which may change the course of the life of many survivors. The final impact of the failure in social adjustment may also result in long-term socio-cultural issues.Results:We expect that the results of the submitted projects demonstrate the unforeseen physical and psychological wounds in refugees, irrespective of their age and background. One major outcome would be the failure of the social adjustment and if possible, a comparison with previous wars’ refugees.Conclusion:The research will conclude by presenting a summary of all results and categorization of the conditions that influence the well-being of refugees as well as the host country. New recommendations will be available based on the experience gained and the results presented.

Natural Consolation of Maternal Loss--- Analysis of “A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal”

The Lucy poems are five of the most famous and wonderful poems of William Wordsworth, who is one of the greatest English poets of the Romanticist era. The Lucy poems are a sequence of touching poems that are loosely connected and rearranged not by the author himself but by later generations. They are about how the persona meets a girl who lives in distant nature and how he grieves for her when she dies. It is widely acknowledged that the theme of the poems is grief and loss towards the persona’s lover. However, the identity or the archetype of the girl Lucy has been debated among Literary critics. To explore this, this article takes the final poem of the sequence, “A slumber did my spirit seal” as an example, and holds the argument that Lucy is the subconscious psychological role whose death represents the maternal losses of Wordsworth in his early years, and finally gives the interpretation that the poem conveys the theme that one can find consolation from mother nature to heal one’s own psychological wounds, just as in this poem the poet finds sadness and grief no more by realizing the fact the mother nature has embraced his dear Lucy, as well as himself. This article will analyze this argument by the methods of line-by-line close text analysis and interpretation.

The Unhealing Scars: ‘Her’ Narratives of Partition

Literature reflects society in various ways. Displacement implies crisis of identity. The history of colonialism has occupied a large space in portraying the displacement of individuals across cultures. It has left a wound in everybody’s heart since driving an individual away from his/her native land is synonymous to deprive him/her of the right to breathe. Partition narratives form the part and parcel of displacement as a separate branch of studies. When a nation is fractured the trauma of losing one’s land creates a wound in the psyche and it has been contextualized by various writers during the pre and post phases of partition. They have focused on the physical, mental, social and above all the psychological wounds of individuals who have lost their native land. The documentation of partition narratives is of various layers and gender discourse is a significant component of this. Partition has revealed the hidden wounds of women’s bodies which have always been the site of oppression. They were abducted, raped, mutilated and they have been left as mere living beings. The present paper attempts to explore the effect of partition on women through the analysis of short stories written by Shobha Rao. Urvashi Butalia, Nivedita Menon, Kamla Bhasin have been extensively exploring the displacement of women in the context of partition and their narratives focus on the traumatic experiences of displacement and how that reduce their identities since they are merely considered as ‘bodies’. Shobha Rao, known as an American novelist immigrating from India has extensively focused on women’s oppression in various contexts. In the collection of short stories called An Unrestored Woman Rao is concentrating on the abducted women being returned to their own lands in the context of the Abducted Persons (Recovery and Restoration) Act in 1949. The proposed paper is going to examine Rao’s texts in the context of partition to trace the nature of displacement, trauma and quest to find their own identity.

The Traumatic on Having Marriage to Female Teenagers from Divorce Family

Adolescents who experience losing their parents due to divorce will face psychological wounds called trauma. The trauma affects how their view marriage in the future. There were 3 adolescent informants who were interviewed using a phenomenological approach. The trauma felt by teenagers is the fear of being abandoned by their partner, the fear of divorce will happen again, the fear of getting domestic violence and the fear of the spouse’s family not accepting the divorced family background. The traumatic experience of their parents getting divorced in the end made them decide not to get married when they grew up.
 Keywords: Traumatic, Divorce, Teenagers, Family

АКСІОЛОГІЧНО-ЕТИЧНИЙ ВИМІР ЛІТЕРАТУРНИХ РЕПОРТАЖІВ «ТИ НАЧЕ КАМІНЬ ЇЛА» ТА «Я НАМАЛЮЮ ТОБІ СМЕРТЬ» ВОЙЦЕХА ТОХМАНА

Reportage is a genre on the borderline between non-fiction and fiction. Because of their inherent hybridity, which undoubtedly has a significant impact on their form and content, they often cross these boundaries, especially in recent decades. In these times of rapid and easy access to information, the understanding of the reporter’s work has also changed, and his role is now to relate the superficial, the everyday and the present to universal and human criteria. It is he who can and should organize man’s knowledge of the world by placing it against the background of universal moral judgements or social sensibilities. Awareness of the truth, of the reality of the events described, must speak deeply to the reader. Such principles of touching upon humanity’s innate empathy, shocking and forcing after reading the texts to answer the important ontological questions posed by the reporter, are characteristic of reporter’s prose by Wojciech Tochman. This article focuses on two collections of reportages, «Jakbyś kamień jadła» (“Like eating a stone. Surviving the Past in Bosnia”) and «Dzisiaj narysujemy śmierć» («We are Going to Draw Death”), which are linked by the exposure of the face of evil through the extraction of drastic experiences from the memories of witnesses, victims and killers. Through their testimonies, the Polish reporter reveals the macabre mechanics of genocide, while at the same time attempting to find answers as to how survivors can rebuild a destroyed world by soothing their psychological wounds. Tochman is constantly aware that his primary task is to present the facts, even if this involves revealing the shocking truth. The transformation of the notion of trust and the notion of social ties are vividly revealed in the texts. A separate point of reference in the thesis is the Ukrainian reception of the two collections of reportages, as the dynamics of their reception is a clear indicator of how interdependent are the reflections on the reading of the pain and suffering of those who survived the ethnic massacres in the Balkans or the Rwandan genocide massacre, the passivity towards the presented facts versus the absence of a similar experience.

Victorian Trauma: War, Railway Accidents, and the Vulnerable Body

Abstract: In Balaclava (1876) by Elizabeth Thompson (later known as Lady Butler) the central figure of a traumatized survivor of the Charge of the Light Brigade, modeled after real-life veteran of the Charge William Henry Pennington, was criticized as being over-dramatic. The criticism of Pennington's pose and demeanor shows the inability of the Victorian definition of "shock" to encompass what today would be termed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A shift in the Victorian model of trauma has been connected to railway travel; unrecognized has been the connection between the discourses on trauma in railway accidents and from warfare based on the vulnerability of the body. The mechanization of transport led to new anxieties about the precarity of the railway passenger's body and engendered an analogy between railway accident trauma and warfare. Surgeon Edwin Morris's A Practical Treatise on Shock After Surgical Operations and Injuries: With Especial Reference to Shock Caused by Railway Accidents (1867) made this connection explicit. Morris considered physical war wounds specific and verifiable but criticized claims against railway companies for the psychological aftereffects of accidents as unverifiable. Morris expressed the fear that both railway passengers and soldiers could simulate the effects of trauma in the absence of any physiological injury that would make their symptoms verifiable, revealing the shortcomings of the Victorian diagnosis of shock and the privileging of physical over psychological wounds.

Victorian Trauma: War, Railway Accidents, and the Vulnerable Body

Abstract: In Balaclava (1876) by Elizabeth Thompson (later known as Lady Butler) the central figure of a traumatized survivor of the Charge of the Light Brigade, modeled after real-life veteran of the Charge William Henry Pennington, was criticized as being over-dramatic. The criticism of Pennington's pose and demeanor shows the inability of the Victorian definition of "shock" to encompass what today would be termed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A shift in the Victorian model of trauma has been connected to railway travel; unrecognized has been the connection between the discourses on trauma in railway accidents and from warfare based on the vulnerability of the body. The mechanization of transport led to new anxieties about the precarity of the railway passenger's body and engendered an analogy between railway accident trauma and warfare. Surgeon Edwin Morris's A Practical Treatise on Shock After Surgical Operations and Injuries: With Especial Reference to Shock Caused by Railway Accidents (1867) made this connection explicit. Morris considered physical war wounds specific and verifiable but criticized claims against railway companies for the psychological aftereffects of accidents as unverifiable. Morris expressed the fear that both railway passengers and soldiers could simulate the effects of trauma in the absence of any physiological injury that would make their symptoms verifiable, revealing the shortcomings of the Victorian diagnosis of shock and the privileging of physical over psychological wounds.