The Trauma of Reality

In the last chapter, The Trauma of Reality, we think through the period of COVID from the perspective of reality, interpreting the concept of reality in the theoretical framework of the Atmosphere. We focus particularly on understanding the Intersubjective (in the broad sense) thread in the ascribing of meaning: the process by which external events in the here-and-now become inner, subjective realities – in other words, by which they are given meaning. In order to gain a more accurate understanding of this process, our model distinguishes a third reality between external reality and the individual’s inner, psychic reality: we (or intersubjective) reality, the reality of the group, of the intersubjective community in the broad sense. In the sections of this chapter, we define the concept of reality, we examine the mutual interplay of the we reality and the me reality, including how the individual’s and the group’s perception of reality is changed and distorted by the effect of mass trauma. We consider how the reality of the group, the we produced in the constantly changing here-and-now, can color and shape the me reality. We discuss how changes in the me reality rebound to the we reality, and how past (emotional) reality is woven through the present me and we realities.