Eden's Trauma and Her Ways to Overcome Her Trauma in Amber Smith's The Way I Used To Be

Abstract

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-5), defines trauma as an event that causes injury when a person is hit by death, sexual abuse, and others. Recovery from a traumatic event is usually a painful and lengthy process. Everyone has their reaction to dealing with the trauma they have experienced. This study aims to find out what events caused Eden's trauma and the way Eden overcame her trauma in the novel The Way I Used to Be by Amber Smith. This research belongs to the category of literary criticism that uses Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis as its research approach. This study uses the trauma theory by Sigmund Freud. The source of the data in this research is the novel by Amber Smith, entitled The Way I Used To Be. This study reveals that the cause of the trauma experienced by Eden was sexual abuse by Kevin. Apart from that, other components support the increasing sense of trauma experienced by Eden. In this research, Eden's ways were also found to overcome the trauma she experienced. To overcome her trauma, Eden did several ways. Based on this research, the novel entitled The Way I Used To Be by Amber Smith can be used to illustrate how to deal with trauma well. For this reason, readers can use this novel as research material with topics other than trauma issues, such as how the personality changes of Eden's character after sexual abuse occurred. Keywords: Trauma, Psychoanalysis, The Way I Used To Be