Mar 15, 2020 12:00:00

What is 'collective trauma' in which many people in a community have trauma at once?

It is widely known that those who have experienced a tragic event or experienced deep sorrow may have suffered

traumatic injury for many years. Associate professor Erin Smith, who studies response to natural disasters at Edith Cowan University about `` collective trauma '' where people belonging to the community collectively have trauma unlike personally known trauma Explains.

Collective trauma is real, and could hamper Australian communities' bushfire recovery
https://theconversation.com/collective-trauma-is-real-and-could-hamper-australian-communities-bushfire-recovery-131555

Smith's roots in the notion of collective trauma are the work of Emil Durkheim , a French sociologist known for writing suicide theory . Durkheim pointed out that the norms, values and rituals of the people are the basis of social order, and argued that these elements will be important in the recovery of the affected society.

Collective trauma occurs when an unexpected event has severely damaged community ties. For example, the Buffalo Creek Flood in West Virginia in the United States in 1972 severely damaged coal mining settlements, killing more than 100 people. The sociologist Kai T. Ericsson visited the area the following year after the flood and discovered 'a whole community in a state of permanent shock,' a collective trauma.

Intense flooding not only killed lives and destroyed social infrastructure, but also destroyed community relationships and long-standing routines of life. Smith pointed out that the loss of social connections in the floods has caused collective trauma in people living in the affected areas.

Rob Gordon , an Australian trauma expert, points out that social disruption and isolation can cause serious problems in the lives of local communities and destroy the social structure of communities themselves. The social structure of a community plays an important role in recovering from a catastrophic disaster, but if the social structure itself is destroyed, it will be difficult to recover from the disaster itself.

Not only natural disasters cause collective trauma, but also man-made disasters such as wars, conflicts, and genocide disrupt the way communities have built up and create collective trauma. In recent years, historic large-scale fires that hit Australia from 2019 to 2020 can also break social ties and create collective trauma.

In the past, various approaches to trauma recovery have been devised over the years, but mostly focused on personal trauma. Nevertheless, in recent years, understanding of collective trauma seems to be deepening, as the Australian Red Cross (PDF file) has published “Guidelines for Events That Cause Collective Trauma”.

While much is not known about therapeutic interventions to recover from collective trauma, reconnecting people socially and recognizing their connections to the community is considered important for recovery from collective trauma I am. Mr Smith said it was important to create a mechanism to provide security and social connectivity to help the community recover from a serious infectious disease epidemic, natural disaster, prolonged war, conflict, or terrorist events.