TRAUMA, IDENTITY AND CULTURE: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY AND MULTICULTURAL EXPLORATION

Abstract

The present article examines trauma in the multicultural context of India based on an interdisciplinary and comparative study drawing on theories from psychology, neuroscience, genetics, comparative literature, arts and cultural studies. The focus is on various forms of trauma - psychological, physical, individual, collective - and the way they shape distinct worldviews, problematic identities and conflictual selves rooted in the dialectic union of tradition and modernity that characterizes South Asian cultures in varied degrees. It is argued that these traumas get integrated into the self through a series of negotiations, emotional reverberations and transactions, yet constantly carry within them the potential of implosion/explosion in certain situations; they lead to creative and critical subversions of social norms, to the deconstruction of language and the everyday, the emergence of new discourses, as well as to processes of restructuring the self (and psyche) through dialogical interactions with the world. These interactions between the self, being and the world develop according to two significant dimensions, namely genetic and epigenetic factors, which points to the fact that trauma has a transgenerational transmission and manifests in varied degrees and forms in different contexts of development. This paper illustrates such experiences of trauma and their impact on the human psyche by comparatively analyzing (con)texts and selves from the Indian culture and the world.