Theoretical Aspects of Trauma Studies (terminology, problematic issues and scheme of analysis): An attempt at analysis

Abstract

The article focuses on the theoretical aspects of trauma studies and attempts to discuss the gaps and problematic areas within the methodology. Contemporary trauma studies, despite its rather active development over the past decades, has the problem of clear articulation of its key definitions and methodology. Moreover, the very subject of the studies — trauma — has a naming problem: when the term is transferred from the field of psychiatry, clarity is lost, instead, the emphasis is placed on the impossibility of a full understanding of the phenomenon. Therefore, the purpose of the article is, first of all, an attempt to develop a terminological apparatus and a method of analysing traumatic narratives. This paper will focus on reflections on the key term trauma, as well as an attempt to develop a terminological apparatus and a method of text analysis within these studies.

The subject of the article is an attempt to formulate fundamental terms and propose a method for analysing trauma in a literary text. Drawing primarily on cognitive behavioural therapy, the method is an experiment in looking at trauma from the perspective of cognitive behavioural therapy, psychology, neuroscience and philosophy.

This article outlines the subject of trauma studies (traumatic event, trauma, consequences of trauma) and notes the problematic aspects of trauma studies: the blurring of some of its terms and warnings about the tendentious use of its conceptual apparatus. The main terms of trauma studies were named as follows: trauma was defined as the experience of an event that excessively upsets and at  least temporarily suppresses the internal resources of an individual, as well as causes persistent psychological symptoms; the traumatic event was called the event itself, which leads to trauma; the consequences of trauma — all possible reactions to a traumatic event after its actual experience  — included the following stress — a set of protective physiological reactions that occur in the body of animals and humans in response to the impact of various adverse factors (stressors); fear as an emotional reaction to a real or imaginary threat; and defence mechanisms — automatic unconscious mechanisms connected with the self that provide mental protection of the individual.

Finally, a five-part descriptive method of trauma analysis was proposed, which includes: identifying the  cause of the trauma, the way the narrative is articulated, describing the fears produced by the trauma, characterising stress and reactions to it and defence mechanisms, and finally, seeing whether the trauma is integrated within the text itself. This method was tested on the material of Pavlo Vyshebaba’s short story ‘The Martians’ as an example of a text where trauma is successfully integrated into the experience of the characters. The proposed method can be further expanded and applied to other texts as a potential template for analysing trauma narratives.