Historical trauma (HT), as used by psychotherapists, social workers, historians, and psychologists, refers to the cumulative emotional harm of an individual or generation caused by a traumatic experience or event. Historical Trauma Response (HTR) refers to the manifestation of emotions and actions that stem from this perceived trauma.
According to its advocates, HTR is exhibited in a variety of ways, most prominently through substance abuse, which is used as a vehicle for attempting to numb pain. This model seeks to use this to explain other self-destructive behavior, such as suicidal thoughts and gestures, depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, anger, violence, and difficulty recognizing and expressing emotions. Many historians and scholars believe the manifestations of violence and abuse in certain communities are directly associated with the unresolved grief that accompanies continued trauma.[1]
Historical trauma, and its manifestations, are seen as an example of Transgenerational trauma (though the existence of transgenerational trauma itself is disputed). For example, a pattern of paternal abandonment of a child might be seen across three generations,[2] or the actions of an abusive parent might be seen in continued abuse across generations. These manifestations can also stem from the trauma of events, such as the witnessing of war, genocide, or death. For these populations that have witnessed these mass level traumas (e.g., war, genocide, colonialism), several generations later these populations tend to have higher rates of disease.[3]
Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart first developed the concept of historical trauma while working with Lakota communities in the 1980s. Since then, many other researchers have developed the concept and applied it to other populations, such as African Americans and Holocaust survivors.[citation needed]
First used by social worker and mental health expert Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart in the 1980s, scholarship surrounding historical trauma has expanded to fields outside of the Lakota communities Yellow Horse Brave Heart studied.[4] Yellow Horse Brave Heart's scholarship focused on the ways in which the psychological and emotional traumas of colonisation, relocation, assimilation, and American Indian boarding schools have manifested within generations of the Lakota population. Yellow Horse Brave Heart's article "Wakiksuyapi: Carrying the Historical Trauma of the Lakota," published in 2000, compares the effects and manifestations of historical trauma on Holocaust survivors and Native American peoples. Her scholarship concluded that the manifestations of trauma, although produced by different events and actions, are exhibited in similar ways within each afflicted community.
Other significant original research on the mechanisms and transmission of intergenerational trauma has been done by scholars such as Daniel Schechter, whose work builds on the pioneers in this field such as: Judith Kestenberg, Dori Laub, Selma Fraiberg, Alicia Lieberman, Susan Coates, Charles Zeanah, Karlen Lyons-Ruth, Yael Danieli, Rachel Yehuda and others. Although each scholar focuses on a different population – such as Native Americans, African Americans, or Holocaust Survivors – all have concluded that the mechanism and transmission of intergenerational trauma is abundant within communities that experience traumatic events. Daniel Schechter's work has included the study of experimental interventions that may lead to changes in trauma-associated mental representation and may help in the stopping of intergenerational cycles of violence.[5][6]
Joy DeGruy's book, Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, analyzes the manifestation of historical trauma in African-American populations, and its correlation to the lingering effects of slavery. In 2018, Dodging Bullets—Stories from Survivors of Historical Trauma, the first documentary film[7] to chronicle historical trauma in Indian Country, was released. It included interviews with scientist Rachel Yehuda, sociologist Melissa Walls, and Anton Treuer along with first hand testimonies of Dakota, Lakota, Ojibwe and Blackfeet tribal members.
While all of these contributions to this field of research are valuable bases of knowledge, it is also important to understand what type of limitations researchers are faced with when approaching such a complicated topic. The first thing to keep in mind is the individual nature of trauma itself. Each person experiences trauma in a different way and has a different definition of what trauma even is for that matter. In their 2014 study Mohatt, Thompson, Thai and Tebes address this issue directly saying “because trauma is a representation as opposed to an event, and because we cannot directly know the minds and lives of the past, we cannot assume that our way of responding to negative events is valid for prior generations. (Mohatt, et al)”.[8] This type of flaw is common when looking at topics that combine historical events (trauma) and the feelings that people have regarding them. However, it does not mean that research is invalid, we must simply view it as a public narrative. At that point it not only keeps its original impact but actually gains some more traction and becomes a community advancement tool due to its emotionally charged nature. It also helps connect the issue to the present day world. “A narrative framework for historical trauma offers improved conceptual clarity and opportunity for scientific investigation into the relationship between trauma and present-day health by considering the ways in which historical traumas are represented in contemporary individual and community stories (Mohatt, et al)”.[8]
Even though we are 150 years post-slavery, the historical trauma the Black community faces today is still relevant. Since Slavery ended, Black people have still had to deal with Black Codes, poverty, the KKK, lynchings, civil rights movement, racial prejudice, and much more. In 1963 the Ku Klux Klan bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham killing four little girls. Sarah Collins Rudolph was 12 years old and survived the bombing but lost her sister and friend in the attack. The blast from the bomb sprayed her eyes with glass; she lost one eye and the other was barely saved. She continually suffered due to expenses, as well as problems with the remaining eye.[9] Since she was a Black woman she was never seen as equal to if a White person and this is what lead into the historical trauma we see today. The Black community has been struggling with historical trauma since the beginning of time, especially due to slavery. Statistics show that they have higher rates of poverty, poor health, maladaptive behaviors, lower quality of life, higher rates of disease, stress, and poor mental health, lower wages/job security, higher homicide rates and drug use and so much more due to the historical trauma they’ve endured over time.[10]
Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart first coined the term Indigenous Historical Trauma (IHT) in the 1980s, to characterize the psycho-social legacy of European colonization in North American Indigenous communities.[11] The term Indigenous Historical Trauma (IHT) can be useful to explain emotions and other psychological phenomena experienced by Native Americans today. Identifying IHT helps with recognizing the "psychological distress and health disparities" linked to current Indigenous communities.[12] The broader concept of Historical Trauma was developed from this, and gained footing in the clinical and health science literatures in the first two decades of the 21st century. In 2019, a team of psychologists at the University of Michigan published a systematic review of the literature so far on the relationship between IHT and adverse health outcomes for Indigenous peoples in the United States and Canada.[12]
An example of Indigenous Historical Trauma is the ”Indian boarding schools” created in the 19th century to acculturate Native Americans to European culture. According to one of their advocates Richard Henry Pratt, the intention of these schools was to literally “kill the indian” in the student, “and save the man”.[13] These schools attempted to strip children of their cultural identity by practices such as cutting off their long hair, or forbidding them to speak their native language. After the school year was over, some indigenous children were hired to work for “non-Indian families” and many did not return home to their families.[14][12]
The fear and loneliness caused by such schools can be readily imagined. But scientific research has consistently found that the stress caused by Indian boarding schools (due to mistreatment and sexual abuse) resulted in depression. Descendants of boarding school survivors may carry this historical trauma for generations, and in the present day, Native American students still face challenges related to their lack of awareness of “psychological injury or harm from ancestral experiences with colonial violence and oppression”.[12] Indeed, people who are unaware of the traumatic experiences their ancestors endured may find themselves involved in continued patterns of substance abuse, violence, physical abuse, verbal abuse, and suicide attempts.
The Jewish community has always had to face adversity but when the Holocaust began, they faced perhaps the worst of it. From 1933-1945 the Jewish community was broken by the Nazi regime and resulted in the death of 6 million Jews and others. Even though we are decades later, and the Holocaust has ended, they have still had to struggle with the historical trauma brought on them. There are museums with a mountain of shoes that were stripped from Jews being thrown into concentration camps and concentration camps like Auschwitz that people can visit. The Jewish community is constantly reminded of the trauma they or their family endured. In 2003 and in 2005, the Jewish US Anti-Defamation League spoke out against several animal rights groups that compared the confinement and killing of farm animals to the experience that Jews and other groups in concentration camps went through.[15]
Historical Trauma (HT), or Historical Trauma Response (HTR), can manifest itself in a variety of psychological ways. However, it is most commonly seen through high rates of substance abuse, alcoholism, mental health issues, domestic violence, and abuse within afflicted communities. The effects and manifestations of trauma are extremely important in understanding the present-day conditions of afflicted populations.
Within Native American communities, high rates of alcoholism and suicide have direct correlation to the violence, mistreatment, and abuses experienced at boarding schools, and the loss of cultural heritage and identity these institutions facilitated. Although many present-day children never experienced these schools first-hand, the "injuries inflicted at Indian boarding schools are continuous and ongoing," affecting generations of Native peoples and communities.[16]
Countries like Australia and Canada have issued formal apologies for their involvement in the creation and implementation of boarding schools that facilitated and perpetuated historical trauma. Australia's Bringing Them Home report and Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Canada) both detailed the "experiences, impacts, and consequences" of government-sponsored boarding schools on Indigenous communities and children.[17] Both reports also detail the problems facing Indigenous populations today, such as economic and health disparities, and their connection to the historical trauma of colonization, removal, and forced assimilation.
Author and teacher Thomas Hübl, documenting his experiences working with Germans and Israelis to engage in dialogue around their shared historical and intergenerational trauma, writes:
Whether we refer to a person as victim or victimizer, oppressor or oppressed, it appears that no one, given time, remains untouched by collective suffering. Historical traumas impart their consequences indiscriminately upon child and family, institution and society, custom and culture, value and belief. Collective traumas distort social narratives, rupture national identities, and hinder the development of institutions, communities, and cultures, just as personally experienced trauma has the power to disrupt the psychological development of a growing child.[18]
And while it is important to acknowledge the horrific effects of so many different historical traumas on a multigenerational level, it is also important to note some of the more productive outcomes that have been borne from that same intergenerational trickle down effect of some of these traumas. Cohn and Morrison[19]found that grandparents of Holocaust victims, rather than being involved in the conspiracy of silence surrounding the event, became more like advocates:
"In feeling highly connected to their grandparents’ stories of suffering and survival, the participants were found, on the whole, to be motivated to engage with their family histories, while committing themselves to sustaining these narratives into the future ( Cohn et al)”.[19] This is great news for community organizers looking for people to speak and act in favor of positive social changes both on local community and national policy levels.
Treatment of HT must repair the afflicted person or communities' connection with their culture, values, beliefs, and self-image. It takes the forms of individual counseling or therapy, spiritual help, and group or entire community gatherings, which are all important aspects in the foundations of the healing process. Treatment should be aimed at a renewal of destroyed culture, spiritual beliefs, customs, and family connections, and a focus on reaffirming one's self-image and place within a community.[20]
Due to the collective and identity-based nature of HT, treatment approaches should be more than solutions to one individual's problems. Healing must also entail revitalization of practices and ways of being that are necessary not just for individuals but for the communities they exist within. Relieving personal distress and promoting individual coping are important treatment goals, but successful treatment of HT also depends upon community-wide efforts to ending intergenerational transmission of collective trauma.[21]
Particular attention should be given to the needs and empowerment of peoples who are vulnerable, oppressed, and living in poverty.[22] Social workers and activists should promote social justice and social change with and on behalf of clients, individuals, families, groups, and communities. In order for advocacy to be accurate and helpful to the afflicted populations, social workers should understand the cultural diversity, history, culture, and contemporary realities of clients.[23] This can be done by educating people on racial -ethnic socialization, which is the process where children develop the behaviors, perceptions, values and attitudes of an ethnic group, and how they identify themselves and others in relation to those beliefs.[24]