Cultural Aspects of Trauma

Conceptualizations of culture and diversity in the trauma field and trauma are numerous. This variety in our understanding of what constitutes “culture” and how to operationalize it is at the root of numerous controversies in the field. Several parallel developments in the trauma field seek to understand trauma and suffering. One is led by cultural anthropologists and cultural psychologists, and it is more ecological and contextual in its understanding of trauma and human suffering. It conceptualizes the intersections of culture and trauma as deeply determined by the values, beliefs, worldviews, morals, preferences, power or privilege dimensions, among others, of both the patient and the researcher, theorist or clinician. It uses an idiographic as well as a social justice approach in its understanding of the human ...