A sociohistorical perspective of PTSD : how scientific explanations and approaches to posttraumatic stress can be enhanced by the humanistic psychology and the narrative experience of trauma, Massey University
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Date
2023
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Massey University
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Abstract
Current understandings of posttraumatic stress today have been built upon the foundations of Freudian psychoanalysis, which has continued to dominate mainstream psychology, in recent times being empirically backed by modern-day cognitive psychology and neuroscience. However, the implication which these physiology-centric explanations hold is that they have a tendency to reduce mental distress caused by trauma to a disorder, namely posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Trauma involves a psychologically distressing event occurring within the external world, separate from an individual, and has been identified as an experience. To fully conceptualise and gain a greater understanding of the effects of trauma on people – as both groups and individuals – the narrative mode of human experience, the role of existential meaning has in recovering from trauma, and how trauma affects people on a spiritual level must not be disregarded. Research from significant areas of humanistic and narrative psychology, including prominent Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist Victor Frankl, has been detailed in respect to traumatic events and how they are experienced by people for important consideration.