Trauma Essay Sample

Trauma and visuality in modernity

Trauma and visuality in modernity by Lisa & Eric (2006) is a revolutionary collection of essays in art history that focuses on the entwining of trauma and visual representation in modernity. The essays on images say that the experience of visuals reveals the trauma within any signifying system, showing an economy of trauma. Monuments purge traumatic art history; videos, the belated witnesses of trauma, act as vehicle of historical testimony. Practices of performance and installation produces a theatre of complex historical events. Films become points of ethical encounters across culture and traumatic differences.
It tells us that all the traumatic experiences and even their names lead us to encounter history. Such inhabitations and encounters become art, visual or verbal. Visual representations like physical memorials, performances, drawings, photograph or films can be more trauma-embedded with extraordinary persistence. This is because, the elusiveness of trauma is a visible subject and the language use to frame trauma is visual.

Trauma Psychology: Issues in Violence, disaster, health and illness

Trauma Psychology: Issues in Violence, disaster, health and illness by Carl (2007) describes the different trauma related events with real life examples and cases. While defining the different types of trauma, recognised and underrecognised, elaborately, it reflects on the interventions to treat them, drawing special attention to culture and context. It also makes suggestions on recommendations and strategies for public policy.
Trauma Psychology is unique because of its elaboration on the wide types of trauma and the different interventions needed to deal with it. It stresses the topic throwing light into cultural and contextual aspects because the effect of each traumatic event or experience varies with culture and victims’ coping styles differ according to that.
Both these books are innovative and timely, in the sense, when one helps to understand how visualisation of trauma in the art affects the understanding of modernity, the other is a valuable resource for all, especially clinical psychologists, regarding trauma and healing.