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Hard to See: How trauma became synonymous with authenticity

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Re: Hard to See: How trauma became synonymous with authenticity

#11

Post by kayodelycaon »

odessacubbage wrote: post #9
tfigueroa wrote: post #5

This explains feelings I’ve had watching Euphoria . I’ve noticed a worsening physiological response just watching the show , so haven’t finished season 2. Initially I felt there was some catharsis to get out of it, but I’ve had to stop myself and ask what the effects really are. More cortisol? Less shock from real trauma? I’m not sure. Yet I was drawn in by the trauma, and the thought - formed somewhere in my mind -…

so much of modern tv just feels like misery porn.

Along these lines, modern dramatic TV makes me incredibly anxious. I shouldn’t need to take medication to watch a TV show.

Re: Hard to See: How trauma became synonymous with authenticity

#12

Post by goatlover »

odessacubbage wrote: post #9
tfigueroa wrote: post #5

This explains feelings I’ve had watching Euphoria . I’ve noticed a worsening physiological response just watching the show , so haven’t finished season 2. Initially I felt there was some catharsis to get out of it, but I’ve had to stop myself and ask what the effects really are. More cortisol? Less shock from real trauma? I’m not sure. Yet I was drawn in by the trauma, and the thought - formed somewhere in my mind -…

so much of modern tv just feels like misery porn.

There's a third and fourth spinoff of The Walking Dead coming out if that's your thing.

Re: Hard to See: How trauma became synonymous with authenticity

#13

Post by taurath »

My internal narrative is that newer generations are working to keep their emotional well being alive - to access human empathy and build up the idea of emotional boundaries in response to a world which pretends they shouldn’t exist - especially with older generations who were encouraged to shut it off and not talk about anything, or to feel free to express just about any emotion at any time regardless of whether it’s abusive or gaslighting. Not to mention that reprocessing trauma is much, much more effective than giving someone a pill who presents with depression.

To me while it’s still very messy, it’s so much simpler and more free to live among people who are respectful of emotional boundaries - you begin to trust people to say something if there’s a problem, and so you have freedom to explore and experiment and take risks. The opposite where you’re free to do whatever by disregarding everyone else is functionally railroading people, dehumanizing them in the name of the power of the individual.

Re: Hard to See: How trauma became synonymous with authenticity

#14

Post by extra88 »

livinginfear wrote: post #8

Maybe this relates to how the west seems to consider the highest form of self-actualization to be triumph over adversity. It makes up the core narrative structures of western literature. It defines the core story arc show on television. I wasn't at all surprised all those years ago when Lana Del Ray affected this faux veneer of 'prom queen goes melancholy'. It's existed forever, it's just broken mainstream now.

> the west seems to consider the highest form of self-actualization to be triumph over adversity.

What’s an example of a culture that doesn’t lionize triumph over adversity?

Re: Hard to See: How trauma became synonymous with authenticity

#15

Post by [deleted] »

pessimizer wrote: post #4
kayodelycaon wrote: post #3

> Trauma has become reduced to a trope And here in lies the problem. Trauma and reactions to it have always existed. Perhaps in the past, people had communities to lean on and help them cope. Or they just drank themselves to death. (Always a popular option.) Mental illness has also existed for a very long time. Schizophrenia isn’t a new disease. It’s just a new, better understood label. The science behind psychology…

This is ahistorical. Psychology has fixated on trauma as the source of neurosis since https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Breuer and Anna O., and the body of work behind it is almost entirely pseudoscience. > Schizophrenia isn’t a new disease. It’s just a new, better understood label. Really? That's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugen_Bleuler , a contemporary of Breuer and Freud. It's not new, refers to a vague clust…

[deleted]

Re: Hard to See: How trauma became synonymous with authenticity

#16

Post by CoolBreezeTM »

pessimizer wrote: post #4
kayodelycaon wrote: post #3

> Trauma has become reduced to a trope And here in lies the problem. Trauma and reactions to it have always existed. Perhaps in the past, people had communities to lean on and help them cope. Or they just drank themselves to death. (Always a popular option.) Mental illness has also existed for a very long time. Schizophrenia isn’t a new disease. It’s just a new, better understood label. The science behind psychology…

This is ahistorical. Psychology has fixated on trauma as the source of neurosis since https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Breuer and Anna O., and the body of work behind it is almost entirely pseudoscience. > Schizophrenia isn’t a new disease. It’s just a new, better understood label. Really? That's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugen_Bleuler , a contemporary of Breuer and Freud. It's not new, refers to a vague clust…

> It's not new, refers to a vague cluster of symptoms rather than a specific disease, and it's not in any way understood.

As I understand it, this is is an exaggeration. There have been numerous genes that have been found to be associated with Schizophrenic patients (although no single genetic cause exists). There are preventative prenatal trials ongoing.

While science may not have a cure, we have inklings of a cause. If you'd like a pop-culture book, I'd recommend you read Hidden Valley Road.

Re: Hard to See: How trauma became synonymous with authenticity

#17

Post by kochikame »

This is all over LinkedIn these days as well.

Every other post is a close up of someone bawling their eyes out with the post something like "This was when I hit rock bottom", or maybe it's "Ten years ago I was a self-harming junkie who tried to kill myself multiple times, but now I'm the founder of a successful recruiting agency...", or "Here is a picture of my dead child who was taken from last year by cancer" etc.

It's like, if you don't have trauma, or more correctly a visible badge of trauma, you can't be taken seriously.

Personally, I find it a bit showy and basically a form of "virtue signalling" (for want of a better word), but each to their own I guess. I would keep that stuff to myself.

Re: Hard to See: How trauma became synonymous with authenticity

#18

Post by kizer »

Sometimes I get the feeling that those who aren't "suffering" are now condemned as "privileged", completing negating the essence of humanism and liberalism; it's a crime to be _seen_ as living a happy life (while we all know that every person has had their own personal struggles and anyways it's none of our business).

Re: Hard to See: How trauma became synonymous with authenticity

#19

Post by kizer »

tfigueroa wrote: post #5

This explains feelings I’ve had watching Euphoria . I’ve noticed a worsening physiological response just watching the show , so haven’t finished season 2. Initially I felt there was some catharsis to get out of it, but I’ve had to stop myself and ask what the effects really are. More cortisol? Less shock from real trauma? I’m not sure. Yet I was drawn in by the trauma, and the thought - formed somewhere in my mind -…

You're right. It's a low-effort, cheap way to add "authenticity" to a work without putting in the effort to construct a relevant allegory or something else whose "authenticity" is born out of its elucidation of the truth.

It's just violence transformed to scratch even more of that itch for the modern generations.

Re: Hard to See: How trauma became synonymous with authenticity

#20

Post by kizer »

livinginfear wrote: post #8

Maybe this relates to how the west seems to consider the highest form of self-actualization to be triumph over adversity. It makes up the core narrative structures of western literature. It defines the core story arc show on television. I wasn't at all surprised all those years ago when Lana Del Ray affected this faux veneer of 'prom queen goes melancholy'. It's existed forever, it's just broken mainstream now.

Personally I'd like to see more of the triumphing and less of the "shock appeal" adversity in much modern media.
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