OVERCOMING CULTURAL TRAUMA: A PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING PTSD
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17721/2523-4064.2025/13-1/14Keywords:
cultural trauma, PTSD, traumatic experience, multiple determination, cross-determination, understanding.Abstract
B a c k g r o u n d . It has been found that cultural trauma not only causes long-term damage to society, but also creates the basis for the emergence of psychological trauma in the descendants of victims of this trauma. It is also noted that the traumatic experience of war also forms new cultural traumas. The state of war vividly illustrates this mutual influence, which necessitates the need for in-depth research into the causal links between cultural trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
M e t h o d s . Based on a transdisciplinary approach, this article uses axiology (for an adequate understanding of the victim's situation), the concept of multiple determination (for a variety of assessment of traumatic effects), and philosophy as a meta-theory for special studies of PTSD. The purpose of this article is to identify possible ways of researching and treating PTSD associated with acquired cultural trauma.
R e s u l t s . The relationship between cultural trauma and PTSD is examined: as a social phenomenon, cultural trauma can cause PTSD in many members of a certain society, but multiple cases of PTSD that become a separate social phenomenon can also cause a new cultural trauma. It is found that social institutions are designed to both prevent cultural trauma and help overcome it. It is noted that social institutions, as tools of social systems, treat individuals as replaceable material, and therefore may be an insufficient means of overcoming cultural trauma and PTSD. The multiplicity of causes and influences that both cultural trauma and PTSD have is analyzed. The presence of both linear and cross-determination influences was determined: in a normal situation, linear ones prevail, but for overcoming cultural trauma and treating PTSD, it is cross-determination that plays an important role, certain types of which can be strengthened by people and social institutions.
C o n c l u s i o n s . It was found that the joint efforts of victims of cultural trauma, as well as their social environment and specialists (psychologists, psychotherapists and social workers) can contribute to the treatment of PTSD carriers, and in the future – also to overcoming the cultural trauma itself.
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