ABSTRACT
This chapter examines trauma from a non-Western perspective. There has been a reaction to the tradition and psychoanalysts have become more open to considering the role of trauma in human suffering. Relational groups, who deny “the myth of the isolated mind”, place particular value on the idea of trauma. Intersubjective theorists have emphasized that trauma is always and already a part of the historical, cultural, and social context in which it occurs. A human being attempts to avoid surrendering him or herself to the nameless universe by controlling and “naming” the world. A person attempts to prevent, escape, or understand the irrationality of a traumatic event by discovering its mechanism, making the trauma visible by naming its human condition. Traumatization is a psychological state in which a human mind or community is divided, and which creates mental illnesses in both individuals and communities.
