Psychological Trauma

History of Trauma

The understanding of the concept of psychological trauma has changed over history. The ability to recognize psychological trauma depends on social, political, and cultural context. Indeed, revisiting the diagnostic criteria of psychological trauma and the populations diagnosed prompts examining psychological trauma in its social context.

The 20th century witnessed a proliferation of interest in psychological trauma, which has developed in a few fairly distinct waves. The first era began with scholarly investigations that found the diagnostic criteria of psychological trauma rooted in the study of hysteria. This first school of analysis arose in 19th century France, in the context of its republican, anticlerical political movement. The neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot was the first to document the neurobiological symptoms of hysteria in his studies of young women who were beggars, prostitutes, or insane. At the time, hysteria was generally regarded as a disease that occurred in women only and originated in the uterus. Charcot's studies were the first to demonstrate that hysteria was actually a psychological state because the symptoms were lessened through the use of hypnosis. Pierre [Page 490]Janet, Sigmund Freud, Josef Breuer, and others who witnessed Charcot's treatment of hysteria attempted to understand the cause of the illness.

The subject of child sexual abuse has played a pivotal and provocative role in the history of psychological thought. Freud's “seduction theory” acknowledged the pervasiveness of sexual abuse in which he posited that the origins of hysteria lie in premature sexual experiences. However, Freud had great difficulty reconciling this theory with his evolving concept of the child's inner fantasy life. Thus, by the beginning of the 20th century, memories of seduction were conceptualized largely as fantasy instead of as actual trauma, and the theory of psycho-sexual development—crucial to Freud's subsequent work and the cornerstone of classical analysis—was born. Although Freud always retained a belief in the reality of sexual trauma, the motivation was shifted from adults to the seductive behavior of the child.

The second wave of trauma investigation constituted an inquiry into the mental state of soldiers who had experienced combat and suffered from what was then known as shell shock. This study originated in England after World War I and reached its peak in the United States after the Vietnam War. The sociopolitical context in which this investigation flourished was the antiwar movement. After witnessing and participating in the atrocities of World War I, many soldiers began to behave like hysterical women. At first, the symptoms of mental breakdown were thought to be a physical reaction to exploding shells. But soon, the same symptoms were found in soldiers who had not been exposed to physical trauma. Thus, shell shock was understood to be a psychological phenomenon.

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