Trauma Theory

1
Trauma Theory

• Information on slides 2-13 taken from a review
  by
• Dr. Toni McNaron

2
Trauma

• Psychological trauma, an emotional or
  psychological injury
• Usually resulting from an extremely stressful or
  life-threatening situation

3
Trauma Natural Disasters

• Easy to identify with victims
• Hurricanes
• Floods
• Tornadoes

4
Trauma Human Design

• Witness is caught between victim and perpetrator
• Easier to side with perpetrator because all asked
  is to do nothing

5
Trauma Human Design

• Perpetrator relies on silence and secrecy
• If that does not work, the credibility of the
  victim is attacked
• Example the Chris Brown/Rihanna situation

6
Trauma Human Design

• People who try to help victim- professionals-
  come under same suspicion
• Society cant decide whether patients of
  psychological trauma deserve care or contempt

7
Examples

• Soldiers called exaggerators
• Women and children said to be fabricating abuse

8
War Trauma

• Taken seriously only if a movement exists that
  opposes sacrifice of the young to war

9
Sexual/Domestic Trauma

• Taken seriously only if a context challenges
  subordination of women

10
Child Abuse

• Taken seriously only if society truly values
  children

11
Effects on Victim

• No sense of safety
• Sense of autonomy violated
• Sense of invasion and loss of control
• Total humiliation
• Doubt of self and others
• Sense of community and faith damaged

12
Trauma is Worst When

• Person is active participant in violent death
• War atrocities for soldiers
• Abuse happens even once

13
Paradox of Trauma

• People withdraw AND seek close relationships at
  the same time
• Isolation OR clinging to others
• Intense, yet unstable relationships with partners

14
Trauma

• The Armys first study of the mental health of
  troops who fought in Iraq found that about one in
  eight reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress
  disorder.

(Associated Press, June 2004)
15
The Vietnam War

• 1965-1975
• The longest and most unpopular war in which
  Americans ever fought.
• (From VietnamWar.Com)

16
The Vietnam War

• More than 58,000 Americans died
• 304,000 Americans were wounded
• Approx. 3 to 4 million Vietnamese from both sides
  were killed in the conflict
• Cost over 150 billion dollars

(From VietnamWar.Com)
17
Returning from Vietnam

• Many soldiers arrived home and were said to act
  strangely (always on their guard) and have bad
  dreams
• (From WikiAnswers.Com)

18
Returning from Vietnam

• The government did not help (as promised) with
  the mental/physical help of these soldiers.
• Many soldiers came back hooked on drugs and
  didn't get the psychological care they needed.
• (From WikiAnswers.Com)

19
Returning from Vietnam

• Vietnam vets suffered nightmares
• Saw a great deal of violent death
• Often refused to discuss the war
• (From WikiAnswers.Com)

20
Images from the Vietnam War
Mary Vecchio kneels over the bleeding body of
Jeffrey Miller, one of four students killed by
Army National Guradsmen at an anti-war protest
that day.
May 4, 1970, Kent State University, Ohio Photo
by John Filo
21
Images from the Vietnam War
Filo who was a student at Kent State when the
photographs was taken won the 1971 Pulitzer for
this image.
May 4, 1970, Kent State University, Ohio Photo
by John Filo
22
Images from the Vietnam War

• Kim Phuc, center left in the photo, was running
  away from a Napalm attack by a South Vietnamese
  pilot who mistook the a group of civilians and
  South Vietnamese soldiers as a threat.  

23
Images from the Vietnam War

• The photo was taken by Nick Ut who was covering
  the war for Associated Press. Nick Ut promptly
  took Kim Phuc and others to a hospital right
  after taking the photo.  

24
Images from the Vietnam War

•  It was feared that the burns on her body were
  too severe and her hopes of survival were slim.
  Fortunately, after 14 months in a hospital and 17
  surgeries, she returned home.

25
Images from the Vietnam War

• February 1, 1968, Saigon, VietnamPhoto by Eddie
  Adams, AP

• Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong
  prisoner in Saigon during the Tet offensive. The
  prisoner had reportedly just murdered eight South
  Vietnamese people.

26
Images from the Vietnam War

• February 1, 1968, Saigon, VietnamPhoto by Eddie
  Adams, AP

• In 1969 Eddie Adams won the Pulitzer for
  spot news photography. In 1975, the year the
  communists overran the country, Ngoc Loan fled
  South Vietnam, and moved to Virginia, where he
  opened a restaurant. He died in 1998.

27
To Consider

• How can you apply Trauma Theory to The Sorrow of
  War?
• Find examples in the text that relate to your
  notes on this theory.
• For your Readers Notebook entries, one entry
  should evaluate The Sorrow of War using Trauma
  Theory.