Culture, narrative and collective trauma

Abstract

1 0 5 | P I N S [ P s y c h o l o g y i n S o c i e t y ] 4 8 • 2 0 1 5 [ B O O K R E V I E W ] Alexander, Jeffrey (2012) Trauma: A social theory. Cambridge: Polity. ISBN 978-0-7456-4912-2 pbk. Pages vii + 226 "Collective traumas are reflections of neither individual suffering nor of actual events, but symbolic renderings that reconstruct and imagine them. Rather than descriptions of what is, they are arguments about what must have been and what should be. From the perspective of cultural sociology, the contrast between factual and fictional statements is not an Archimedean point. The truth of a cultural script depends not on its empirical accuracy, but on its symbolic power and enactment. Yet, while trauma process is not rational, it is intentional. It is people who make traumatic meanings, in circumstances they have not themselves created and which they do not fully comprehend." Alexander (2012: 4) Jeffrey Alexander's book explores cultural rather than individual trauma. It is not concerned with the psychology of trauma, but rather the social meanings that historical events come to have for communities. His approach is primarily sociological, exploring the collective construction of meaning, while also drawing on political science and the philosophy of ethics. The importance of the book for those working in the field of psychology might thus not at first be obvious, given that it does not concern itself with the clinical and therapeutic aspects of trauma. Alexander identifies a prevailing lay theory of trauma, which asserts that certain extreme events destroy