Shock Effects: the Genesis of Traumatic Perception

In this project the trauma concept is examined from a historical as well as from an epistemological perspective. Since the shock metaphor was of central importance to the evolution and development of the trauma concept it is the focal point of this work: The vicissitudes of psychological and psychiatric knowledge of post-traumatic suffering are made visible by retracing the intertwined histories of medical, psychological, and philosophical shock conceptions. In particular, three overlapping issues are addressed:

First, the formation of the notion of a pathogenic shock in the course of the 19th century is elucidated on the backdrop of the differentiation of clinical and scientific shock concepts, and the emergence of a new type of event: the industrial accident. Thus, two aspects continuing to shape scientific notions of traumatic suffering are highlighted: The clinical and research practices through which traumatic experience became an object of knowledge, and conceptions of individual and social “normality”.

Second, the reconstruction of the circulation of the shock metaphor sheds light on the ambiguous and often contradictory appropriations of the trauma concept: On the one hand, these concepts found their way into critical theory, in the context of which they were invoked to underscore its epistemological and ontological claims. On the other hand, positivistic approaches like behavioral and stress research continued to draw on a concept of shock that insofar as it helps to explain post-traumatic suffering puts an emphasis on the overwhelming presence of an abnormally strong stimulus. Hence, traumatic suffering may be seen as a limit case of “normal” human responses to stress while, at the same time, the term “trauma” is used to designate horrific events we are not willing to accept to be “normal”.

Finally, it is shown that both conflicting approaches ultimately point to an essentialist image of human nature. We will offer a critical reply to these assumptions while outlining an anti-essentialist epistemological approach to psychotherapeutic processes.

Participants:
Dr. Ulrich Koch
Prof. Dr. Michael Hampe

Publication:

• Ulrich Koch: Schockeffekte. Eine historische Epistemologie des Traumas. Zürich 2015, S. 304.