‘Measuring’ Collective Trauma: a Quantum Social Science Approach

Abstract

In the twenty-first century the world faces the stark reality that’s far from any visions of an ideal world, accompanied by an epidemic of social inequality and global injustice. Many social and global issues such as the refugee crisis, climate injustice, racism, whitism, and terrorism are rooted in serious, untreated historical traumata. These traumata have been experienced by one or more members of a family, group, or community, and may have been passed down from one generation to the next through epigenetic factors. Phenomena of collective trauma can be described more understandably through its interpretation by the quantum social science of Wendt (2016). This interpretation provides a social pathology that offers methodological recommendations (methods of treatment) for social therapy. One potential example is the collective trauma integration process (CTIP) developed by Thomas Hübl (Hübl, T. (2020). Healing Collective Trauma: a process for integrating our intergenerational and cultural wounds. Boulder: Sounds True.), which is a method to restore fragmentation by addressing and integrating individual, ancestral and collective trauma. This paper focuses on one methodological consideration for building a new culture through the integration of collective and intergenerational trauma, which is a framework based on collective trauma research in psychology, sociology, and quantum social science.

Cosmopolitan Society and its Enemies

“…According to Johnson (2013), societal dysfunction occurs when social institutions do not positively contribute to the maintenance, or adaptation, of society, causing social, maladaptive, interpersonal, organizational and societal dysfunction. Many researchers of collective, historical and cultural trauma describe these dysfunctions as 'post-traumatic socio-cultural dysfunction' which are rooted in the post-traumatic individuation and socialization process of identity building (Lerner 2012;Matoba 2022). The next section offers an overview of collective and historical trauma research, highlighting three aspects: collective trauma bonding, historical unconsciousness, and the trauma field.…”

“…Researchers who have contributed to defining collective trauma include Volkan (1997), Neal (1998), Koh (2021), Alexander (2012), Aydin (2017), Hirschberger (2018), Hübl (2020) and Matoba (2022). These scholars also study and utilize related terms such as: collective trauma, historical trauma and cultural trauma.…”

“…Collective trauma causes a large group to face drastic losses, feel helpless or victimized by another group, and share a humiliating injury (Matoba 2022). A large group does not choose to be victimized or suffer humiliation, but some members of this group unconsciously associate the trauma of an event they have experienced as part of their identity.…”

“…This is, as Hirschberger (2018, p. 3) argues, 'because the focus of memory shifts from the painful loss of lives to the long-term lessons groups derive from the trauma'. Little attention has been paid to the experiences of suffering and deaths of the victimized ancestors, usually because their group, community, or state has made enormous efforts to rebuild a culture (Matoba 2022). In this rebuilding process of a culture, its members were socialized into forming a coherent social identity by constructing meaning.…”

“…Many trauma therapists and researchers argue that individual trauma caused by a large-scale event must be viewed through the context of collective trauma (Matoba 2022). Collective and individual traumas are entangled as 'a kind of collective trauma bonding' (Hübl 2020, p. 91).…”