Culturally shared metaphors expand contemporary concepts of resilience and post-traumatic growth: contrasting an indigenous Brazilian community and a Swiss rural community

Journal of Traumatic Stress

Heim

et al. 2020

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The concept of psychological trauma implies that people experiencing traumatic stress are wounded, thus relating to the metaphor of a physical injury. Although this notion is widely accepted by clinicians and researchers in mental health, there is evidence of a broad range of metaphorical idioms for extremely aversive experiences or catastrophic events across different cultures. In this ethnopsychological study, we aimed to investigate and contrast culturally shared metaphors for trauma among four distinct cultural groups: two indigenous communities (Pitaguary from Brazil, Adivasis from India) and two rural communities (mountain villagers of Gondo, Switzerland; the Lemko ethnic minority in Poland). The communities in Brazil and in Poland were marked by historical trauma, and the communities in India and Switzerland each suffered from a natural disaster. Semistructured interviews that focused on metaphors shared within each community were conducted with key informants and laypersons (Brazil: N = 14, India: N = 28, Poland, N = 13, Switzerland: N = 9). We conducted separate metaphor analyses, then cross-culturally contrasted the findings from the four samples. Across the four cultural groups, we found similar metaphorical concepts of trauma related to bodily processes, such as shock, burden, and wound. Throughout history, several metaphorical concepts have been used to describe what today is called psychological trauma. Some known expressions include "nervous shock," railway spine," "shell shock," and "traumatic hysteria" (e.g., Young, 1997). The current concept of trauma, from the Greek meaning "wound," metaphorically refers to extremely aversive experiences and catastrophic events as a physical injury, as the term originated from somatic medicine. It was only in the 1980s, when the diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was introduced, that the concept of trauma underwent a semantic shift from an organic injury to psychological distress (Haslam, 2016) Currently, at least in Westernized, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (i.e., WEIRD) countries (Henrich, Heine, & Norenzayan, 2010), people who experience traumatic stress are considered to be wounded, an analogy to a physical injury that reflects implicit notions related to the wound metaphor (Maercker & Heim, 2016). However, literature stemming from outside Western or WEIRD societies has pointed to different metaphorical concepts, such as baksbat, a Cambodian term that translates to "broken courage;" susto, a Latin American term meaning "fright;" and noro, a term used The research in this study was made possible by a grant from the Pettit Foundation (F-63212-11-01).

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metaphors For Trauma: A Cross‐Cultural Qualitative Comparison in Brazil, India, Poland, and Switzerland

Rechsteiner

Journal of Traumatic Stress

Heim

et al. 2020

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“…The findings of this study partly support evidence from other qualitative studies from our own overarching research project exploring metaphorical expressions in other rural communities (see Rechsteiner, Maercker, Meili, & Heim, 2019). Similar concepts relating to primary embodied metaphors were also found in Brazil and Switzerland (Maercker & Heim, 2016;Meili et al, 2018;Meili, Heim, Pelosi, & Maercker, 2019;. Such universal metaphors can be described as archetypal qualities, reflecting a discourse of collective experiences (Jung, 1969).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

“…This study is part of a larger cultural clinical project being conducted in several countries including Brazil and Switzerland, focusing on metaphors relating to extreme aversive events and how they are overcome (Meili, Heim, & Maercker, 2018). All studies used qualitative methods, including a semi-structured interview guide for individual interviews.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“It should not have happened”: metaphorical expressions, idioms, and narrative descriptions related to trauma in an indigenous community in India

Rechsteiner

Tol²,

International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well

2019

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Purpose: Psychological trauma can be viewed as a metaphor which originates from somatic medicine and comes from the Greek word “wound”. To gain a better understanding of trauma in a culturally sensitive way, the present project aimed to explore alternative metaphors used to describe extreme aversive or catastrophic events.Methods: This ethnopsychological study was carried out among the Adivasis indigenous people in tribal communities in Pune, India. We performed 28 interviews with lay persons and key informants, focusing on collectively shared metaphors. The data were examined using systematic metaphor analysis.Results: While the most prevalent metaphorical concepts found related to shock and wound, we also identified culture-specific idioms and common themes in the descriptions related to trauma. The most predominant expression, which was used by all of the participants, was “this should not have happened” (asa nahi vhayala pahije hota). These findings indicate that metaphorical concepts reflect implicit worldviews and beliefs in the community under study.Conclusion: The main implication of the results found is to increase awareness of different expressions in clinical settings, pointing to potential approaches to the cultural adaptation of clinical interventions in general.

“…It demonstrates that treatment efficacy is linearly and positively associated with the number of culturally-adapted parameters (Harper Shehadeh, Heim, Chowdhary, Maercker, & Albanese, 2016). Nevertheless, further research is needed, for instance, concerning culturally appropriate metaphors of adverse events (Meili, Heim, & Maercker, 2018).…”

Section: Modeling Of Culturally-specific Trauma Conceptsmentioning

confidence: 92%

Developments in Psychotraumatology: A Conceptual, Biological, and Cultural Update

Augsburger

2019

CPE

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This report discusses recent developments of psychotraumatology mainly related to the recently published ICD-11, but also from a societal point of view.The selected aspects of the development of this field will be presented as a scoping review.In the first section, the new concept of disorders specifically associated with stress and its relevant diagnostic groups (posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD], complex PTSD, prolonged grief disorder, and adjustment disorder) are presented, with an emphasis on PTSD. The second section embeds these diagnostic concepts within a broader context. In particular, the concept of psychotraumatology is applied to the impact of adverse childhood experiences. More specifically, recent scientific developments are discussed with respect to biological stress research. In a third section, a global perspective is applied that reflects psychotraumatology as embedded in culturally-specific concepts. Lastly, societal developments are taken into consideration. This section focusses on recent processes of victim acknowledgement and compensation taking place in Europe and beyond. Examples are provided for how traumatic stress is perceived and processed in society. Concepts such as continuous stress and historical trauma are also discussed.Demands and opportunities of basic research and psychological interventions with a global focus are outlined.Psychotraumatology is an expanding field including both basic research and intervention-related research.Starting points of this new research area are not only potential traumatic events but also adverse childhood experiences.In a globalized world, cultural and societal factors play an increasingly important role in psychotraumatology.Psychotraumatology is an expanding field including both basic research and intervention-related research.Starting points of this new research area are not only potential traumatic events but also adverse childhood experiences.In a globalized world, cultural and societal factors play an increasingly important role in psychotraumatology.