ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how experiences that are far beyond people’s existing frames of reference eventually transform into trauma. How do society, politics, and history contribute to the creation and continuation of individual, intergenerational, and collective trauma? Sociopolitical trauma is seen as a range of experiences: from political violence against African American and Afro Caribbean people, to the shocks still experienced by those living in Northern Ireland, to the recent refugee crisis, as well as to the ongoing inequalities faced by women. With the use of two examples (a man taking his life because of the financial crisis and a woman in therapy claiming back her voice), this chapter gives an interdisciplinary understanding of trauma.
