L' impero del trauma. Nascita della condizione di vittima

by Didier Fassin

Dagli attentati ai terremoti, dagli incidenti aerei ai sequestri, dai massacri ai suicidi, ogni avvenimento violento invoca la presenza di psichiatri e psicologi che intervengano in nome della traccia psichica del dramma: il trauma. A lungo questa nozione è servita a squalificare soldati e operai della cui sofferenza si metteva in dubbio l'autenticità. Oggi, grazie al trauma, le vittime trovano un riconoscimento sociale. E proprio sulla condizione delle vittime si concentrano le analisi di Fassin e Rechtman, tra i principali antropologi contemporanei. L'impero del trauma delinea l'appassionante percorso che dai lavori di Charcot, Janet e Freud giunge all'invenzione del disturbo post-traumatico da stress negli Stati Uniti, fino all'attuale era di riabilitazione, che produce l'apparizione di una nuova soggettività politica: quella della vittima.

Genres: Psychology, Anthropology, Nonfiction, Sociology, Theory, Philosophy, School

470 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Didier Fassin is a French anthropologist and sociologist. He is currently the James D. Wolfensohn Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and holds a Direction of Studies in Political and Moral Anthropology at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris.

Reviews

[Elari · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is intriguing and almost comical that PTSD has become such an urgent and central concern in the wake of any tragedy worldwide (perhaps the ‘greatest success story of globalization’, according to Ethan Watters), when its official inclusion in the DSM is less than fifty years old. But PTSD is not merely a collection of symptoms or diagnostic criteria. It is the expression of a new form of compassion in politics: one that flaunts its humanitarianism but nonetheless privileges counseling over hunger relief, psychiatric intervention over political reform. More than a disorder, it describes a worldview. Trauma seamlessly, even carelessly shifts in public discourses from its literal meaning as psychological shock to its metaphorical use as social drama. Through this dialectic, it becomes the one intelligible way to express and denounce political violence; at the same time, it reveals undeniable political impotence, as testimony and counseling become stand-ins for true sociopolitical change.

[Saskia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very enlightening read for anyone interested in the politics of memory, legacies of violence, and social constructions of victimhood. While not always easy to read, this is the type of scholarly work that truly changes your way of looking at concepts and categories we often take for granted.

The following passage stuck with me: "Our critique neither refutes--nor confirms--either the diagnosis of trauma or the status of victim. (...) While scientific practice tends to examine a reality for what it is, we have studied what it is not. To be precise, we have focused on two aspects of the process of production of trauma and victims that most research leaves out: what does this process not allow to be said, and who are those whom it makes it possible to leave out? In other words, while trauma is a language that appears both neutral and universal in its account of victims, it significantly fails to throw light on certain signifieds and certain agents. Identifying these gaps gives us the means to grasp the figure of the victim delineated by trauma."

The authors go on two highlight two of these gaps: first, "trauma obliterates experiences. It operates as a screen between the event and its context on the one hand, and the subject and the meaning he or she gives to the situation on the other." Second, "trauma--or rather the social process of recognition of persons as traumatized--effectively chooses its victims. Although those who promote the concept assert that it is universal, since it is the mark left by an event, study reveals tragic disparities in its use."

In the end, "trauma is more of a feature of the moral landscape serving to identify legitimate victims than it is a diagnostic category which at most reinforces that legitimacy." The authors ask us to think about who in our society we think of at victims, and why, and what meanings and processes of recognition this category carries--and who or what is left out. What does it say about us and our relationship to the past and present that trauma has become a key way of relating to past suffering?

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting review of the rise of humanitarian treatment of trauma. The most interesting parts to me were the discussions of trauma post WW1, where psychiatry began to see trauma as a condition in a normal individual suffering through an extreme environment, rather than an innate characteristic of the individual in question. The discussions of the rise of humanitarian treatment of PTSD (after earthquakes in Iran and Armenia, in which there were already adequate services for physical trauma, were also interesting; in the sense that the humanitarians created this zone of action for themselves.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting read. I would never have said this about any book 20 years ago, but it's too Foucaltian.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and important book about the history of trauma as a concept, including the development of the diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I was especially interested in the chapter on the Armenian Earthquake of 1988, which resulted in the development of the notion of "humanitarian psychiatry," and in the discussion of the international asylum system.

"Survivors of disasters, oppression, and persecution adopt the only persona that allows them to be heard--that of victim. In doing so, they tell us less of what they are than of the moral economies of our era in which they find their place."
~ Didier Fassin and Richard Rechtman, THE EMPIRE OF TRAUMA

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fassin and Rechtman's framework was really compelling. They traced epistemological turns in trauma, particularly in France.

[Meredith Goins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and thought provoking look at trauma and its' evolution.

[Sydney Chapados · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting topic and potential to make a really insightful contribution to understanding today’s world but it’s SO empirical that the point gets lost throughout the book. The first and final chapters are fantastic, though.

[Roxani · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most instructive books on the politicization of trauma and victimhood (and the gradations between and within groups of victims) that I've read for my research.