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21 - Trauma in Context: Integrating Biological, Clinical, and Cultural Perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2009

By
Robert Lemelson ,
Laurence J. Kirmayer  and
Mark Barad
Edited by
Laurence J. Kirmayer ,
Robert Lemelson  and
Mark Barad
Robert Lemelson
Affiliation:
Lecturer Departments of Anthropology and Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles; President Foundation for Psychocultural Research (FPR); Co-director Lemelson Foundation
Laurence J. Kirmayer
Affiliation:
James McGill Professor and Director Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, McGill University; Director Culture and Mental Health Research Unit, Sir Mortimer B. Davis Jewish General Hospital, Montréal, Québec
Mark Barad
Affiliation:
Associate Professor Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles
Laurence J. Kirmayer
Affiliation:
McGill University, Montréal
Robert Lemelson
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Mark Barad
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
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Summary

The contributors to this book offer diverse perspectives from which to view trauma and its impacts. In this chapter, we consider how these approaches might work together to deepen our understanding of individual and collective responses to traumatic experience. Our hope is that this will illustrate the value of interdisciplinarity for advancing scientific research, clinical practice, and cultural analysis. We will weave together strands from many of the contributions but begin with a discussion of three further narratives of traumatic experience.

THE DIVERSITY OF TRAUMA RESPONSES

The three case studies we present are drawn from ongoing clinical visual ethnographic research on culture and mental illness in Indonesia by Robert Lemelson (RL). All three individuals suffered trauma during the political upheaval in Indonesia in 1965. All three experienced intense fear or terror witnessing family members being severely beaten, taken away, or killed in front of them. They all have lived in a political climate, from 1965 through the late 1990s, in which their status as relatives of alleged communist party members made them continued targets for harassment, intimidation, violence, and discrimination, often enacted by community members. However, although their exposure to traumatic events was similar in some ways, the long-term outcomes they and their families have experienced are vastly different. These divergent trajectories illustrate the complex interaction of sociocultural, psychological, and neurobiological processes that give rise to individuals' strengths and resiliencies.

Type
Chapter
Information
Understanding Trauma
Integrating Biological, Clinical, and Cultural Perspectives
 , pp. 451 - 474
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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References

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  • Trauma in Context: Integrating Biological, Clinical, and Cultural Perspectives
    • By Robert Lemelson, Lecturer Departments of Anthropology and Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles; President Foundation for Psychocultural Research (FPR); Co-director Lemelson Foundation, Laurence J. Kirmayer, James McGill Professor and Director Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, McGill University; Director Culture and Mental Health Research Unit, Sir Mortimer B. Davis Jewish General Hospital, Montréal, Québec, Mark Barad, Associate Professor Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Edited by Laurence J. Kirmayer, McGill University, Montréal, Robert Lemelson, University of California, Los Angeles, Mark Barad, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Book: Understanding Trauma
  • Online publication: 27 July 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511500008.027
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  • Trauma in Context: Integrating Biological, Clinical, and Cultural Perspectives
    • By Robert Lemelson, Lecturer Departments of Anthropology and Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles; President Foundation for Psychocultural Research (FPR); Co-director Lemelson Foundation, Laurence J. Kirmayer, James McGill Professor and Director Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, McGill University; Director Culture and Mental Health Research Unit, Sir Mortimer B. Davis Jewish General Hospital, Montréal, Québec, Mark Barad, Associate Professor Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Edited by Laurence J. Kirmayer, McGill University, Montréal, Robert Lemelson, University of California, Los Angeles, Mark Barad, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Book: Understanding Trauma
  • Online publication: 27 July 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511500008.027
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Trauma in Context: Integrating Biological, Clinical, and Cultural Perspectives
    • By Robert Lemelson, Lecturer Departments of Anthropology and Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles; President Foundation for Psychocultural Research (FPR); Co-director Lemelson Foundation, Laurence J. Kirmayer, James McGill Professor and Director Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, McGill University; Director Culture and Mental Health Research Unit, Sir Mortimer B. Davis Jewish General Hospital, Montréal, Québec, Mark Barad, Associate Professor Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Edited by Laurence J. Kirmayer, McGill University, Montréal, Robert Lemelson, University of California, Los Angeles, Mark Barad, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Book: Understanding Trauma
  • Online publication: 27 July 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511500008.027
Available formats
×