ABSTRACT
Communication drives our capacity to constitute past experiences through discursive practice and project our respective identities through language. The effects of external crises on our behavior, identity, and policy can be traced through the scars that they leave upon the symbolic universe that forms the basis for our cultural consciousness. When individuals or societies undergo stressful events, whether generated by internal violence or driven by natural catastrophe, these occurrences become integral to the collective histories of those who shared them. Trauma denotes the impact of events that produce severe ruptures in social cohesion and threaten
the stability of these cultural narratives. As the social fabric abruptly tears in the face of tragedy, subsequent symbolic activity must address these openings-both their impact on individuals and the long-term consequences for entire societies.
