ABSTRACT
Trauma is part of the human condition and ever present in the lives of ordinary people throughout the world. Traumatic events punctuate recorded history in a manner parallel to momentous achievements that advance civilization. Traumatic events are the product of human intentions, the randomness of nature, and acts of God. Traumatic experiences are archetypal in nature and have their own psychological structure and energy (Wilson, 2002). Traumatic experiences vary along many different “stressor” dimensions and have simple and complex effects on the
human psyche (Wilson & Lindy, 1994). Traumatic experiences are not only different qualitatively and quantitatively from each other, but are subjectively experienced in individual ways through the life history of the person, the filters of culture and language, and the nature of injury inflicted on the organism in all of its integrated wholeness. Trauma can strike at the surface or the deepest core of the self — the very “soul” and inner-most identity of the person. Traumatic experiences can lead to transformations of the personality, spirit, beliefs, and understanding of the meaning of life. In that same sense, traumatic experience can alter life-course trajectories and have multigenerational legacies (Danieli, 1998). In a broader perspective, massive or catastrophic trauma can permanently alter, eradicate, or damage entire societies, cultures, and nations (Lifton, 1967, 1993). Indeed, as an archetypal form, trauma can be a psychic force of enormous power in the individual and collective unconscious of the species. Unmetabolized trauma of a violent nature caused by wars, terrorism, torture, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and the purposeful abuse of others can unleash destructive forces within the fabric of civilization (Freud, 1917, 1928; Jung, 1929; Wilson, Friedman, & Lindy, 2001).
