Trauma Paper

Trauma: Paper 1
Johannes Kieding
Simmons School for Social Work





Trauma: Paper 1
In reading A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah (2007), my understanding of the different dimensions of trauma expanded, and in observing my own reactions to my reading, I learned a bit about my own ways of trying to manage that which cannot be managed – what we call trauma. In thinking about the nature of trauma I think about an experience that overwhelms our capacity to bear it, and therefore it cannot be assimilated and integrated into our felt sense of self. Trauma divides our inner being, causing fragmentation, and the core symptoms of intrusion, constriction, and hyper-arousal. A Long Way Gone provides a window into both systemic, collective trauma and individual level trauma via the personal account of Ishmael himself.
How was collective trauma described in the book? The fist thing that comes to mind is how people began to look at each other with fear and suspicion (hyper-arousal). This fear and suspicion began to fray the social and communal fabric of shared meanings and shares joy in connecting with others, and as the war escalated, the social fabric was torn and eventually shredded, as seen when Ishmael and his youthful friends were almost killed by villagers fearing that the youth may be child soldiers. Lillian Comas-Diaz (2007) speaks to collective trauma in this context as "post colonial stress disorder," and warns not to medicalize what is essentially a political phenomenon (Comas-Diaz, 2007, p. 95 citing Becker 1995).
Applying Comas-Diaz' thinking to Ishmael's situation in Sierra Leone, the events in that part of Africa are the result of the fallout of colonialism and cultural imperialism. Without belaboring this point about how the sociopolitical landscape came to be the way it is in Sierra Leone, suffice it to say that the country had been under British rule until 1961 and slavery was practiced and legal until 1928, an given these realities Comas-Diaz ideas of "post colonial stress disorder" make a lot of sense in terms of explaining the instability and hemorrhaging of the nation as a whole.
Are there any parallel symptoms between the trauma of to the system of Sierra Leone and the individual symptoms of trauma that Ishmael and many others suffered? Arlene Audergon (2004), in Collective trauma: The nightmare of history, speak to how the defense of splitting can be seen at the systemic level. The author states that it is common for a more privileged group in a society to want to split off from and minimize or even deny actions and historical facts that do not flatter the dominant group (Audergon, 2004, p. 21), and at the individual level Ishmael had to split off from and deny the humanity of the rebels and even civilians so as to be able to carry out the massacres he did. All of Sierra Leone became massively split, siding with other the government forces or the rebels and writing off any redeeming qualities of the other.
Ishmael's hyper-arousal and inability relax and let his guard down was also mirrored by the entire community. The nation as a whole suffered from hyper-arousal. Audergon speaks colorfully of the parallels between the individual and collective symptom formation thusly, "The replay of trauma in individuals, in nightmares, flashbacks and visceral experience, and the replay of trauma in society in the perpetuation of unacknowledged pain and in cycles of violence…" (p. 19). Sandra Bloom and Brian Farragher (2013), in Restoring sanctuary: A new operating system for trauma-informed systems of care, reflects on how trauma impacts a system and the systemic hyper-arousal that results: "A perceived lack of safety erodes trust, which is the basis for social relationships. As a result… tensions run high" (Bloom & Farragher, 2013, p. 15). The tortured inner landscape of Ishmael, his nightmares, flashbacks (intrusions), and inner deadness (constriction) reflected the carnage, torture, and deadness around him. The stressors on the community of not knowing if the next group of young boys walking down the road will bring death, of having rebels massacre entire villages -- the living in constant fear, begin the process of breaking down the social fabric and initiates the systemic and individual trauma-response.
What specific signs of trauma did Ishmael exhibit, and what were some ways that he coped? One symptom that Ishmael frequently experienced was intrusive memories and images of horrific deeds he had committed and horrific things he had seen. These intrusions led to very painful headaches, and he tried to deal with by occupying his mind with other thoughts and staying on the go. Later Ishmael coped by listening to music and writing song lyrics. Another symptom that he experienced was constriction of affect. He describes feeling almost like a machine or a zombie, going through the motions of killing in an almost unthinking state of mind, with little feeling at all. From one perspective this constriction can be seen as a way of coping with unbearable pain. He coped with this numbing and constricting "shutting down" type of trauma-response by using drugs, which gave him an exhilarating rush and sense of aliveness. Being on the verge of reuniting with his family only to know that they were burned to death minutes before he could see them again, and the initial separation from his family and normal way of life were perhaps the two worst traumatic events that happened to Ishmael, and the aforementioned trauma-responses of intrusions, hyper-arousal, and a restricted affect was the result.
What role did oppression have in the trauma inflicted upon Ishmael and Sierra Leone? As previously mentioned, the most obvious oppressive force at play in the sociopolitical situation in Sierra Leone is colonialism and its aftermath. Comas-Diaz sheds more light on this issue. She writes:
Colonization involves more than the dynamics of dominance and subordination, power and powerlessness, and aggression and identification with the aggressor. It involves a systemic negation of the colonized, with the consequent pervasive identity conflicts for the colonized of color (Fanon, 1967, 1968). Colonization gives birth to the colonized mentality. This mentality comprises emotional and psychological reactions such as alienation, self-denial, assimilation, and string ambivalence (Memmi, 1965) (Comas-Diaz, 2006, p. 95).
Given this account of the destructive consequences of colonization, it's not a far leap to understand how the instabilities and "pervasive identity conflicts" of Sierra Leone and its inhabitants gave rise to the gaping wound that Ishmael describes. There is also the question of internalized racism that would need to be assessed. I did not see direct evidence of this, but it could be argued that internalized racism is part and parcel of the colonized mentality that Comas-Diaz so elegantly describes.
How might interventions be created that could target the oppressions and social injustices that Ishmael highlights in A Long Way Gone? Might there be anything in Sierra Leone's rich culture that could give a clue? What comes to mind is the tradition of oral story telling that was so beloved by Ishmael and his country me and women. Many trauma-informed clinicians stress the importance of helping the person struggling with trauma to build a coherent narrative around what they have experienced so as to prevent the fragmenting effects of trauma and to help restore a sense of meaning. Hillary Mayers (2005), in Treatment of a traumatized adolescent mother and her two-year old son, speaks to the importance of the narrative in treating trauma: "Janie's capacity and willingness to reflect on her history and to enter into a collaborative relationship with me allowed her to build a narrative that strengthened self-regulation, response flexibility and reflective functioning" (Mayers, 2005, p. 430). Mayer's identifies self-regulation, response flexibility, and reflective functioning as core skills that need to be strengthened to help trauma victims, but it is Bloom and Farragher (2013) who summarize exactly what about trauma actually leads to symptom formation: "…The symptoms we were seeing were secondary to a failure to fully integrate past experiences" (Bloom & Farragher, 2013, p. 10). Understanding the root problem allows the development of proper interventions.
From a strength-based perspective, it would make sense to use the culture's beloved tradition of storytelling and use this strength to unite the people and psycho-educate about the colonized mentality. The famous story-tellers could be recruited in this effort, so that every household could hear these stories, and slowly but surely the people of Sierra Leone could begin to make sense of what happened to them and form a less fragmented, more cohesive narrative of events and what it means to be a citizen of Sierra Leone. Furthermore, Bloom and Farragher, in spelling out their vision for Sanctuary, stress that democracy is essential in creating a non-violent system. This begins in the family where children need to have their points of view listened to while still obeying parental authority, and it needs to extend to the political arena, where every adult citizen of the nation should be able to have their voices heard through voting (Bloom & Farragher, 2013, p. 38). Repairing and building an infrastructure that can allow for a truly democratic system in Sierra Leone is a must if the war-torn nation is to heal. Educational campaigns, again drawing on the culture of storytelling, must be implemented.
What were my own personal reactions as I read Ishmael's account? I found myself intermittently pained, shocked, and horrified as I read the book, and other times I found myself tuning out the reality of what I was reading. It was as if it was all just too much and I could not always hold and honor what I was reading as truly real in a three-dimensional way. I see this response as a double-edged sword: it's not hard to see the adaptive value in being able to shut-out certain experience so as to prevent over-loading the system, but this distancing and ability to tune out the raw reality of things comes at a price. As Audergon (2004) elucidates, one of the main sources of pain for people that had been traumatized by war is that others, even in neighboring towns, had shut out the reality of what was happening, resulting in hopelessness and isolation for the victims. When I allow the pain of others to touch me, I feel pain but I feel more human. If Audergon is right, this act of allowing the pain of others to become real is also healing for trauma victims (Audergon, 2004, p. 20). I am not always able to let in and feel the reality of all the horrific events and resultant pain that I read about and watch on the news, but when I could let Ishmael's pain be real to me I felt more real myself. It's a direction I want to continue to pursue.





References
Audergon, A. (2004). Collective trauma: The nightmare of history . Psychotherapy and Politics International , 2, 16-31. http://dx.doi.org/Retrieved from
Bloom, S. L., & Farragher, B. (2013). Restoring sanctuary: A new operating system for trauma informed systems of care. New York: Oxford University Press.
Comas-Diaz, L. (2007). Ethnopolitical psycology: Healing and transformation . In E. Aldarondo (Ed.), Advancing social justice through clinical practice . Retrieved from New York
Mayers, H. A. (2005). TREATMENT OF A TRAUMATIZED ADOLESCENT MOTHER AND HER TWO-YEAR OLD SON. Clinical Social Work Journal, 33, 419-431. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10615-005-7035-x

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