The word trauma is said to have originated from the Latin word ‘Trauma’ which is derived from the Greek word ‘Traumatikos’ which means a serious wound to the body. Trauma is referred to as any emotional wound leading to psychologicalinjury or an event that causes great distress. According to American Psychological Association, trauma is referred to as an emotional response to a terrible event. Alameda County Trauma Informed Care, a trauma and mental health care organization in Alameda County, California, refers to trauma from a psychological perspective to describe experiences that are emotionally painful and distressing and that overwhelms an individual’s capacity to cope. Dejonghe, a psychologist and sociologist at the California Polytechnic
Up until the 19th century, trauma meant something psychical. Once limited to bodily wounds, trauma, in its contemporary understanding, is now also recognized as an injury to the mind, soul, or spirit. Though Sigmund Freud’s views of trauma evolved over time, what remains essential from his studies of “hysteria” and “shell-shock” is the inability of the mind to perceive the traumatic event as it occurs, resulting in a structure of delayed understanding. The traumatic memory cannot be processed on a linguistic level and as a result, surfaces through as somatosensory and involuntary responses. Studying these forms of embodied memory led those like French psychologist Pierre Janet to make the careful distinction between narrative and traumatic memory.
Literature review: The contemporary trauma theory derived by pioneer critics such as Caruth and Felman has a central claim that a traumatic incident creates a “speechless fright that divides or destroys identity”. (Trends in Literary Trauma Theory- Balaev, Michelle) Trauma theory according to a child psychiatrist Lenore Terr occurs
Trauma underlines the life of Liesel Meminger. Most of the major events that take place in her life are trauma inducing to some extent and a lot of her later actions seem to be rooted in these traumatic events. Based on the psychoanalytic ideas of Sigmund Freud, and later Jacques Lacan and Cathy Caruth, trauma theory purports that when traumatic events occur, the brain in a protective gesture, blocks them from fully entering consciousness. They are buried in the depths of the mind, for the large part inaccessible to the conscious individual in normal everyday life. However these traumatic stimuli refuse to stay repressed and resurface in the form of intrusive images or nightmares as symptoms of trauma-related illnesses such as PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).
It could be seen as autobiographical, for the author is recounting his experience while writing the memories of his father. Notwithstanding, I will analyse it as a trauma narrative. My reason to do so is that I believe it is the trauma of three of the novel´s main protagonists which determines the way in which the story is written, and that Maus would not have seen the light of day provided it would not have been a real, traumatic experience. Hence, the biographical approach to the novel is possible but we should not forget that it is built around
Another fact to keep in mind while looking at the novel as a trauma narrative is the historical background. The novel
Once people experience psychological trauma, people can never be able to forget that. It invades people’s thoughts, dream and unleashing mood swings, anger, depression and an exhausting sense of hyper vigilance because men can never out run their past. Recent studies add a disturbing new layer to our understanding: The behavioral changes that can come with emotional trauma are not only difficult to overcome but also it can be overcome with family’s hopes, care and aspiration. Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD): Narcissism
Postcolonial writing has concerned itself specifically with the recuperation of lost history. Cultural Memory studies is that burgeoning field of study which provides the important tools for understanding and ultimately deconstructing the configurations of nationalist and imperialist power embedded in the representation of the past which takes cognisance of the visceral experiences and the memories of resistances of the oppressed through generations (Gandhi 92). ‘Culture’ is a veritable social construct that is usually understood in and through the contents of its traditions—its modes of action, forms of language, aspirations, interpersonal relations, images, ideas and ideals. ‘Memory’ is the capacity to remember, to create and re-create our past. The substance of our very being is memory, our way of living is retaining reminders; articulating memory is our raison d’etre.
As mentioned before, trauma referred to physiological events as “a form of bodily or physical harm” in the eighteenth century while it had emotional and psychological references in the nineteenth century (Buelens, Durrant and Eaglestone xi). Therefore, in order to avoid anachronism in analyzing traumatic experiences in the eighteenth century through literary trauma theory, I intend to find similar terms used in the eighteenth century to refer to these traumatic experiences and their aftermath. Moreover, what makes this approach appropriate for investigating trauma in early English novel is the mutual relationship between medical discourse and literary discourse in the eighteenth and the late twentieth century. As a result, this section will
Exposure to the traumatic memory (not prolonged exposure to prevent dropouts) 2. Systematic reconstruction of the memory into an apprehensible written piece 3. Integration of the traumatic memory into autobiographical memory 4. Psychodynamic elements where connections between the meaning of the trauma and the patient’s personal story is identified (Peri and Gofman, 2014) The setting of a NR with the patient is simple. The patient orally recounts the traumatic event whilst the therapist records the story the way the patient conveys it.