Uncomfortable Truths About Trauma
3 Trauma Myths Dispelled
This post is way overdue. I planned and started it at least a month ago, but then political commentaries and travel stories displaced it. So, here’s me going back in my own lane – psychology.
If you missed my last three posts, they were:
What Survives When Empires Fall (a travel story with pictures)
Full Pockets, Empty Promises (on the politics of corruption)
Rage Bait – The Word Of The Year (cultural psychology)
George Bonanno, a professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University, has spent decades tracking people after bereavement, disaster, and violence in his clinical research. He’s introduced innovations in trauma research, written books on the subject, and won multiple awards for his contributions to understanding trauma. In the last five years, he has been ranked among the top 1% of most frequently cited scientists among all science and social-science disciplines worldwide.
George Bonanno is not shy about busting the most common myths about trauma that most therapists and our therapy culture take as gospel. I don’t consider myself a trauma specialist, but I am reluctant to label anything and everything that people struggle with as trauma-related, if for no other reason than to avoid getting people stuck in what they think is an inescapable past.
A lot of science is on his side.