ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the politics of the global event is increasingly narrated in terms of a series of traumatic qualities and characteristics. It also argues that the traumatic spectacle of 'financial apocalypse' also gave birth to a host of satirical and subversive critiques of finance and financial crisis. The chapter foregrounds the humanitarian dimensions of the traumatic discourse of sub-prime by pointing to the normative and emancipatory possibilities that were read into the event. Knowledge about trauma rests upon the construction of an intimate relationship between the individual and the 'traumatic' event. Indeed, humanitarian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have emplaced trauma as a central motif of disaster response. The popularity of therapeutic techniques such as Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and its correlated more generalised practice of 'talk therapy' rely on and (re)produce particular understandings of the individual in terms of his or her ability to experience more 'resilient' responses to traumatic events.
