Historic Trauma and Aboriginal Healing
by Cynthia C. Wesley-Esquimaux, Ph.D. and Magdalena Smolewski, Ph.D.
by Cynthia C. Wesley-Esquimaux, Ph.D. and Magdalena Smolewski, Ph.D.
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Chapter 2<br />
• the person may manifest diminished responsiveness to the external world, referred to as psychic<br />
numbing or emotional anaesthesia.<br />
As early as 1889, psychologist Pierre Janet noted that emotionally intense events are made traumatic<br />
when the integration of the experience is interfered with. This would have been the experience of<br />
<strong>Aboriginal</strong> people as they fought to survive increasingly hostile <strong>and</strong> unrelenting attempts to assimilate<br />
<strong>and</strong> destroy their social <strong>and</strong> cultural environments. “Janet believed that intense emotions cause a<br />
dissociation of memories from consciousness <strong>and</strong> result in the memories being stored as anxieties, panic<br />
nightmares, <strong>and</strong> flashbacks. Janet observed that his patients had difficulty learning from their experience<br />
<strong>and</strong> seemed to focus a great deal of energy on keeping their emotions under control” (cited in O’Meara,<br />
1997:71).<br />
According to the Diagnostic <strong>and</strong> Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders, 4 th edition (DSM-IV), a person<br />
who suffers from PTSD may complain of feeling detached or estranged from other people. His or her<br />
ability to feel emotions of any type, especially those associated with intimacy, tenderness <strong>and</strong> sexuality<br />
is markedly decreased. Many report change in aggression <strong>and</strong> a form of irritability with a fear of losing<br />
control. The fear is conscious <strong>and</strong> pervasive <strong>and</strong> the reduced capacity for modulation may express itself<br />
in unpredictable explosions of aggressive behaviour or an inability to express angry feelings. Symptoms<br />
of depression <strong>and</strong> anxiety are common <strong>and</strong> impulsive behaviour can occur. Impairment may be severe<br />
<strong>and</strong> affect nearly every aspect of life. Phobic avoidance of situations or activities resembling or symbolizing<br />
the original trauma may interfere with interpersonal relationships such as marriage or family life.<br />
Emotional lability (state of being unstable or changeable), depression <strong>and</strong> guilt may result in selfdefeating<br />
behaviours or suicidal actions. Psycho-active substance use disorders are common complications<br />
(American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Symptoms of PTSD are even more complicated in children.<br />
Children have the sense that they are reliving the past; that they are reliving the occurrence of trauma in<br />
action, <strong>and</strong> there is a marked change in orientation toward the future. This can include a sense of a<br />
foreshortened future (American Psychiatric Association, 1994).<br />
What happens when an entire population experiences post-traumatic stress disorder compounded by<br />
recurrent stressors? What happens if the disturbing, intrusive memories of genocide become internalized<br />
by a society that, as a whole, disengages itself from life <strong>and</strong> gets involved in circular re-living of trauma,<br />
generation after generation? What happens when individual multiple symptoms of PTSD become<br />
expressed by entire populations <strong>and</strong> begin to be passed through overt behavioural patterns to their<br />
children, gr<strong>and</strong>children <strong>and</strong> great gr<strong>and</strong>children, together with unanalyzed <strong>and</strong>, therefore, unresolved<br />
memories of loss <strong>and</strong> separation? According to Hallowell:<br />
The old Ojibwa character was also built on a psychological foundation which required<br />
a maximum of inner control, since, from the st<strong>and</strong>point of their social organization,<br />
highly institutionalized outer controls <strong>and</strong> sanctions were practically absent. This<br />
psychological feature of the Ojibwa is also the basis of the so-called “social atomism” of<br />
their [A]boriginal society (1967:236).<br />
What happens when a whole nation loses a sense of control over its own psychological resources?<br />
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