ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of interests and challenges in designing for exhibitions that are likely to provoke strong emotions. It suggests that pathways for creating or facilitating support mechanisms to assist visitors in engaging and processing emotional content. In the mental health field, clinicians use the term vicarious trauma to describe a range of situations in which people are traumatized by witnessing the trauma of others. Like other traumas, vicarious trauma can happen quickly and unexpectedly, can circumvent even the best psychological defenses, and can be a serious illness. Traumatic situations involve high levels of emotional and psychological stress. In a museum setting, visitors can be traumatized vicariously by exposure to intense exhibitions. Shame often accompanies trauma, grief, and loss. Being aware of the trauma, grief, loss, or shame that visitors might bring will allow museums to act professionally and ethically in situations of emotional intensity.
