Сollective trauma as an issue of social and political psychology research

Abstract

The problem of collective traumas is relevant for the present day Ukrainе and is important for understanding of the socio-psychological foundations of large and small social group functioning. Currently the theme of collective trauma is quite substancially investigated in the psychological and psychotherapeutic literature, both in general terms and in terms of studying concrete examples of traumas caused by genocide, slavery, terrorist attacks and the like. The most frequently studied aspect is the one dealing with the collective trauma of the Holocaust and its transgenerational transmission. At the same time the publications devoted to the collective trauma of the Ukrainian Holodomor are relevantly few in the scientific literature. The concept of collective trauma can be related to the concepts of historical trauma, transgenerational trauma, national trauma, cultural trauma, and information trauma. The severity of the collective trauma and the conditions of the traumatic experience transmission to the descendants depend on a number of factors: severity of injury, level of emotional experience of injustice, activeness or passiveness of the traumatized group, working through the consequences. There are different types of strategies to cope with a collective trauma for a large group: progressive, active-aggressive, passive-aggressive and regressive. Their application may lead to both constructive (transformation of the trauma into a historical narrative) and destructive (development of an aggressive ideology) tendencies. Coping with consequences of collective traumas in large groups involves different ways of ritualization of the traumatic experience. One of them is creation of a heroic epos in certain historical periods. In small groups, one can observe collective traumas caused by the events taking place in these groups. They may be also consequences of the historical traumas that are actualized in certain periods of intensification of the group dynamics. A number of methodologies to work though collective traumas have been developed. One of the important roles is played by the method of sociodrama.

Key words: collective trauma, historical trauma, social dynamics, transgenerational transmission, trauma coping strategies, ritualization of traumatic experience, sociodrama.