Trauma Blog

Trauma and World Literature: Behold the Dark Gray Man: Triumphs and Trauma: The Controversial Life of Sholto ‎Douglas by Katharine Campbell, PhD
StressPoints
Date posted: 09/30/2021
Topic: Trauma and the Arts
Sholto, Lord Douglas of Kirtleside, was a Royal Air Force fighter pilot in WWI. He also served as the senior British officer in WWII in Fighter Command, the Middle East, in Coastal Command, and as military governor and Commander in Chief of the British Zone in occupied Germany. Lord Douglas had to pass judgement on the fate not only of the Nuremberg war criminals but also of others sentenced to death by military government courts in the British Zone.

Trauma and World Literature: The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
StressPoints
Date posted: 07/23/2021
Topic: Trauma and the Arts
The plague of COVID-19 is often compared to the influenza epidemic of a hundred years ago. Less often mentioned are commonalities between COVID-19 and the ongoing AIDS epidemic. Perhaps the similarities are not so apparent because now, at least in economically advantaged countries, the risk from AIDS seems restricted to smaller, more marginalized groups of people. In addition, we now have more effective treatment for AIDS than for COVID-19.

Nonetheless, important similarities between the effects of AIDS and what we see in COVID-19 are brought to light in Makkai’s Stonewall Award-winning novel, The Great Believers.

Trauma and World Literature: ‎“Poem that Ends at the Ocean” by Jim Moore
Date posted: 05/27/2021
Topic: Trauma and the Arts
The award-winning poet, Jim Moore, author of the poem that follows in this issue’s column, writes in his autobiographical statement that as a young teacher two of his students dropped out of school. These students were subsequently drafted, sent to Vietnam, and killed. In response, Moore returned his draft card, and was therefore imprisoned for 10 months.

Trauma and World Literature: Thucydides on the Ancient Athenian Epidemic: Body, Mind, Society and Trauma‎
StressPoints
Date posted: 04/1/2021
Topic: Trauma and the Arts
Thucydides, author of The History of the Peloponnesian War, is known for his compelling historical narrative and political analysis of the late fifth century (431– 404 BCE) war between Athens and Sparta. Centuries of thinkers have praised Thucydides as the first historian to be rigorous in his research—especially when compared with his predecessor Herodotus—and realistic in his analysis of power. 

Trauma and World Literature: She’s Gotta Have It
StressPoints
Date posted: 01/26/2021
Topic: Trauma and the Arts
She’s Gotta Have It, Episode 5
Written by Barry Michael Cooper
Produced and Directed by Spike Lee
First aired on Netflix November 23, 2017

Trauma and World Literature: Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
StressPoints
Date posted: 11/24/2020
Topic: Trauma and the Arts
In these times—no, in any time—we can be grateful for the cheer of a great comic novel about a seemingly gentler world. Gibbons’ 1932 Cold Comfort Farm is just such a masterpiece.

Trauma and World Literature: Freud’s Sunday Child and the 1918 Pandemic Influenza
StressPoints
Date posted: 09/24/2020
Topic: Trauma and the Arts

Monday's child is fair in face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go,
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for its living,
And a child that's born on the Sabbath day,
Is fair and wise and good and gay.

—Children’s Nursery Rhyme

Trauma and World Literature: On Not Being Able to Be There in this Time of Pandemic
StressPoints
Date posted: 07/30/2020
Topic: Trauma and the Arts
Social distancing often denies people the ability to comfort, touch or even just sit with a loved one—not even for the last time. It is profoundly difficult to resist such vital human contact. As we contemplate this dilemma, there is a familiar story from Greek mythology about giving in to the ache for connection which is worth bringing to mind.

From Our Members: I’ll Be Seeing You: A Reflection in the Time of COVID-19
StressPoints
Date posted: 05/4/2020
Topic: Trauma and the Arts
As we persevere through the coronavirus battle together, yet apart, I am reminded of a veteran patient of mine who lost his brother near the end of World War II. His poignant account of the special bond that was severed by his brother’s death inspired me to write this vignette and poem, I’ll Be Seeing You. 

Trauma and World Literature: Transforming Despair
StressPoints
Date posted: 05/4/2020
Topic: Trauma and the Arts
As a psychotherapist and psychoanalyst, I’ve been listening to my clients’ reactions, as well as those of my family and friends, to the first couple of months of the COVID-19 crisis. Universally, people have been reacting to the “surreal” nature of this shared trauma.