Hard to See: How trauma became synonymous with authenticity
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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
#2We need some more "complicated" and "complex" characters. We need more "underdogs".
It's not a bottom up thing necessarily, although individuals have no choice in that game-theory scenario if they want to succeed. It was a top-level design decision.
Sorry.
Re: Hard to See: How trauma became synonymous with authenticity
#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 is still very new in the long view of history.
And as with all science, people have run away with it. In recent history, radiation was seen as healthy and Radium was a fad. Eventually we learned what Radium was and stopped that nonsense.
Our understanding of trauma will change too. We’re still in the discovery phase of this science. Mental health is no longer a taboo topic. And people are running away with it, for one reason or another.
Personally, I welcome the change, but it’s going to be a rough few decades before this settles down. If someone can use something for attention, they will.
Re: Hard to See: How trauma became synonymous with authenticity
#4> 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 cluster of symptoms rather than a specific disease, and it's not in any way understood.
IMO, what's happened is that everybody became an amateur psychologist, effectively medicalizing gossip. You can't just say that you don't like someone anymore, or that they're an asshole, you have to diagnose them. Ironically, if they wear that diagnosis around as a badge of honor, you're not allowed to notice it or consider it in any decisionmaking involving that person, lest you become an abuser.
Disguising gossip as commentary or insight is the addiction.
edit: and the seminal contribution to the victims' communities that politics has now become a battle between was made by big pharma financing patients' groups for specific diseases and using them as lobbying organizations to put pressure on the FDA and insurance companies.
Re: Hard to See: How trauma became synonymous with authenticity
#5This 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 - that these dark, traumatic things were more authentic, and so there was something real and authentic to get out of watching it. But so far, there isn’t much of a thesis, or something, to really think about and learn from. So I’m done for now.
edit: formatting
Re: Hard to See: How trauma became synonymous with authenticity
#6> 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…
I think in the context of the parent post, 1800s is recent.
There’s a different between someone having narcissistic traits and being diagnosed with NPD, but we casually say both of them are narcissists. Everyone has some of those traits, they just don’t run their lives. All language is fundamentally shorthand for real or imagined phenomena, and can be both descriptive and misleading. Clusters of personality traits can be enlightening even in the context of gossip!
Re: Hard to See: How trauma became synonymous with authenticity
#7I think there is an aspect to the recent fixation on trauma that is a response to the tightly curated personas that many present online. Not everyone can/wants to display that "successful" appearance, and some choose to flip the script and emphasize their suffering, which it turns out can garner just as much attention.
Re: Hard to See: How trauma became synonymous with authenticity
#8Maybe 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.
Re: Hard to See: How trauma became synonymous with authenticity
#9This 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.
Re: Hard to See: How trauma became synonymous with authenticity
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
I think in the context of the parent post, 1800s is recent . There’s a different between someone having narcissistic traits and being diagnosed with NPD, but we casually say both of them are narcissists. Everyone has some of those traits, they just don’t run their lives. All language is fundamentally shorthand for real or imagined phenomena, and can be both descriptive and misleading. Clusters of personality traits c…
1800s would be recent in the scales I’m talking about.