Social Trauma and Emotional Attachment

Abstract

Trauma can be described as an injury that leaves permanent consequences, latent traces that can be activated in periods of crisis (Krstić, 2009). In the second part of the 20 th century, the term trauma started being used ever more outside the medical and psychiatric context and entering the domain of social sciences (Sztompka, 2009). In the scope of this, one way the concept of trauma is used is in confronting negative and dysfunctional consequences that social change can leave in its wake. Various authors have studied social and psychological consequences of social changes on individuals and society. In this way, they opened the road to recognizing a new meaning of trauma, which they titled cultural or social trauma. It is known that the theory of emotional attachment states that in crisis or traumatic situations, members of a family group feel insecure, that risks in the environment can lead to lowered responsiveness of the parents, but it is less widely known if unresolved traumatic experiences of parents can be transferred to children and their later emotional attachment patterns. There is particularly little knowledge on whether significant social changes leave consequences on emotional lives of individuals and the emotional lives of their children. In this paper, we try to make a brief review of the literature on the topic, and summarize the theoretical and partly empirical knowledge in the area that exists so far.

Quality of life after traumatic loss and the role of social support: Examining the psychological consequences of the war twenty-five years later

“…Regardless of the loss of trust, their hope that they will experience the knowledge of the truth endures. In addition to personal psychological trauma, the families of the missing live in the societies burdened with social trauma that is embedded in the collective consciousness and social identity of the community (Pedović and Hedrih, 2019).Social trauma is reinforced on a daily basis by the media and the political context of recalling wartime events and socialization twenty-five years after the formal cessation of the conflict. The context of living in a society burdened with social trauma helps maintain an affective connection with the missing person, but at the same time deepens the family's distrust of the world around them.…”

“…Such subjective experiences generate complex emotional dynamics, which delays the acceptance of the fact that the missing person is not present in their lives, delays the beginning of the grieving process, and may even cause guilt due to the acceptance of grieving for someone who has not been found or due to not believing in the identification of the recovered remains (Hutchinson & Bleiker, 2015). Delaying the grieving process in cases of missing persons is also embedded in social trauma, which has become a part of social identity and cultural heritage (Alexander et al, 2004;Haskell & Randall, 2009;Pedović & Hedrih, 2019). Social trauma is a relatively new concept in psychological literature, but research related to the consequences of war suggests the justification of its study (Alexander et al, 2004;Hamburger et al, 2018;Haskell & Randall, 2009;Pedović & Hedrih, 2019).…”

“…Delaying the grieving process in cases of missing persons is also embedded in social trauma, which has become a part of social identity and cultural heritage (Alexander et al, 2004;Haskell & Randall, 2009;Pedović & Hedrih, 2019). Social trauma is a relatively new concept in psychological literature, but research related to the consequences of war suggests the justification of its study (Alexander et al, 2004;Hamburger et al, 2018;Haskell & Randall, 2009;Pedović & Hedrih, 2019). According to Haskell and Randall (2009), social trauma is a complex trauma and a collective emotional wound experienced by a particular social community and, as such, can be embedded in the cultural heritage of the said community and passed on to future generations.…”

“…In this way, the horrors of war socialization are built into "collective memories", and socio-political life in a community takes on emotional factors, as a result of which the pain and suffering of those who experienced war trauma (e.g. lost their loved ones) enter a vicious circle of uncertainty, maintaining social trauma and its cultural transmission from generation to generation (Pedović and Hedrih, 2019).…”

“…They are embedded as life experiences in the psychological framework of the individual and transmitted as cultural heritage of families (Batista-Pinto Viese, 2010). The transmission of traumatic experiences within family dynamics can affect the occurrence of unfavourable patterns of affective attachment and patterns of social relations (Pedović & Hedrih, 2019), but it can also lead to impaired mental health of parents, whose mental suffering and pain gained through experiences of wartime socialization leaves a mark on the mental health of their children (Hadžić, 2019;Haskell & Randall, 2009). A dramatic breakdown of affective attachment and "ambivalent" traumatic loss create psychological suffering that leaves its mark on the quality of life and requires social support.…”