Abstract
This paper presents and discusses two sets of theories concerning trauma. The first involves a contemporary social theory of “cultural trauma” and the second refers to psychoanalytic theories on psychic trauma. We argue that these two groups of theories have some relevant elements in common, despite social theorists’ critique of psychoanalytic understanding on the matter. In our view, the most important meeting points between these groups of theories concern (a) the possibility to think that trauma is not welded to events but has a formation process, one of attribution of meaning, (b) that this process has a temporality of its own, and (c) that the environment (the objects, actors, and agents that compose it) has a fundamental and determinant role in trauma formation. Further, we suggest that trauma is still an open concept in psychoanalysis.
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Acknowledgement
I would like to thank Isabella Borghesi Dal Molin, Nelson Coelho Junior, and the group he coordinated at the University of São Paulo, composed of Amanda Watson, Bruna Zerbinatti, Daniel Schor, Douglas Pereire, Fabio Vargas, Jô Gondar, Gisele Senne de Moraes, Sergio Gomes and Marina Bialer, for reading and commenting on the present version of this paper.
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Dal Molin, E.C. Trauma: open concept. Am J Psychoanal 84, 79–93 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s11231-024-09442-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s11231-024-09442-0