A Theoretical and Theological Reframing of Trauma

Racism, eco-violence, and myriad sociopolitical and interpersonal injustices continuously injure individuals, communities, and the globe, thereby challenging the human capacity to endure. The prevailing biomedical model of trauma, with its emphasis on pathology, fails to acknowledge the traumatic na...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Holton, M. Jan (Author) ; Snodgrass, Jill Lynnae (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science Business Media B. V. 2023
In: Pastoral psychology
Year: 2023, Volume: 72, Issue: 3, Pages: 337-351
Further subjects:B Theologies of trauma
B Distress
B Stress-trauma continuum
B Trauma
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Summary:Racism, eco-violence, and myriad sociopolitical and interpersonal injustices continuously injure individuals, communities, and the globe, thereby challenging the human capacity to endure. The prevailing biomedical model of trauma, with its emphasis on pathology, fails to acknowledge the traumatic nature of these diffuse and pervasive injuries. The disciplines of spiritual and pastoral psychology are uniquely poised to reconceptualize trauma and reframe it as part of a stress-trauma continuum, given the way trauma can engender great suffering as well as resistance and the possibility of transformation. This perspective eschews the sentiment, ubiquitous in popular culture, that everything stressful is traumatic as well as the notion that "true" trauma is delimited by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR). This article posits a strength-based approach to trauma that contextualizes our societal negativity bias within spiritual values of hope, (post-traumatic) growth, and (possibly) resilience while not diminishing the very real suffering, even despair, that emerge from trauma of all kinds.
ISSN:1573-6679
Contains:Enthalten in: Pastoral psychology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s11089-023-01063-1