Trauma and Social Change

The Polish academic Piotr Sztompka has written extensively about the role of trauma in transition and conflict states in Eastern Europe. He has applied the growing body of knowledge related to collective trauma and attempted to understand the ramifications of its aftereffects.

Collective traumas result, over time, in massive social changes.

Wars, natural disasters, state collapse, mass deaths and various other calamities evoke deep traumas in collectives. They have the power to rupture society in a way which could lead either to their total collapse or to fundamental changes that could completely change future events.

Just as the US Civil War, the Second World War and other major events led to fundamental economic, social, political and philosophical changes, sudden events have the ability to transform in the same way.

But as these ideas percolate in different areas of society, it could also at times lead to intransigence, the closing of views and the kind of stubborness that lead to future conflicts.

Only the disputants have the power to change the way they approach a conflict which has been ongoing for decades.

As long as Israel is ostensibly occupying the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem in the name of security, dominant players in the region such as the United States, the European Union and the United Nations will bear some responsibility for Israeli policies by those in the occupied Palestinian territories and by the neighbouring Arab states.

As long as the US views Israel's role as one of strategic regional interest vis a vis buttressing Syrian and Iranian influence, it will be hard pressed to be viewed as a balanced arbiter of interests in the region.

Violence by any side in the conflict will only perpetuate the current vicious circle which presently defines the nature of the conflict.