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

Abstract

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).

Cultural adaptation of Hap-pas-Hapi, an internet and mobile-based intervention for the treatment of psychological distress among Albanian migrants in Switzerland and Germany

“…In this process, several text passages were identified that did not permit a literal translation but required adaptation. Metaphors and idioms collected in the ethnopsychological study ( Shala et al, 2020 ) were used in such adaptations, inspired by research on metaphors and idioms of distress in cultural clinical psychology ( Rechsteiner et al, 2020 ). Translations were validated by consulting dictionaries, discussing essential idioms and metaphors in focus group discussions (FGDs), and gathering opinions of the Albanian-speaking team members.…”

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

“…Many reported of experiencing a ‘loss of orientation’, like the feeling of being in a ‘vacuum bubble’ or having an ‘empty picture’ in front of them after the natural disaster had hit them. The primary focus of this study was on adaptive responses to severe adversities; the adversities themselves (and related metaphors) are described elsewhere 59…”

“…It has been suggested that alienation from psychological symptoms is more frequent in non-Western cultures 97. For the Pitaguary, this will be further investigated by focusing on adversity-related metaphors 59…”

“…The two studies presented here are part of a broader project on cultural–clinical psychology focusing on metaphors for various kinds of responses to adversity among rural communities from different countries (I Meili et al , submitted, 2018) 59. The first field study was conducted during 1 month in July 2016 in Monguba in Ceará, Brazil with 14 individuals.…”

Loss of homeland: a qualitative study of the changes in perception of relocated Sichuan earthquake survivors with posttraumatic stress disorder

“…Listening to these earthquake survivors' sorrowful narratives and exploring their everyday experiences in depth provide a key to understanding the cultural meaning of PTSD symptoms. It is pivotal for clinicians to listen to and understand victims' culturally specific metaphorical expressions of trauma as culture-specific expressions strongly reflect sociocultural and historical contexts and indicate potential approaches to the cultural adaptation of clinical interventions [39].…”