Understanding Trauma: Definition, Types and Intelligent Function

We are born into a fragmented world. Trauma is part of our lives. Every one of us has experienced it, in varied forms and on different scales. The way we understand and tend to it shapes, in profound ways, the quality of our lives and our impact within society — and also as a society.

This article aims to clarify the definition of trauma, to explain the difference between a traumatic event and trauma itself, to explore the different types of trauma, and to underline that trauma is not a malfunction but rather an intelligent and necessary response of our organism. By demystifying these concepts, I hope to offer a more nuanced and compassionate perspective on this natural and universal reaction.

The etymology of the word trauma

The Greek root of the word “trauma” means wound.

Definition of the word trauma

Trauma can be likened to a wound of the psyche. One part of this wound is raw and extremely tender, causing intense pain at the slightest touch. The other part of the wound is hard and rigid, like scar tissue. We feel nothing when we touch it. This rigid tissue is protective, but because it is hard, it can hinder growth and development.

Trauma is not what happens to you, but what happens inside you as a result of what happened to you. Trauma is that scar that makes you less flexible, more rigid, less sensitive and more defensive.

— Dr Gabor Maté

The trauma of a past event lives in the present within us

Trauma is a fragmented part of our experience that keeps repeating itself, again and again. It is a part of us frozen in the past. Bessel Van Der Kolk defines trauma as “an event that overwhelms the central nervous system, altering the way we process and recall memories. Trauma is not the story of a past event; it is the present imprint of the pain, horror and fear that live inside people.”

The impact of stress

As Resmaa Menakem puts it, trauma can be both what is too much, what came too soon, too fast, for too long. And also what was missing, when it should have happened — like offering a child (small or grown) a safe and dignified holding.

A high level of stress can exceed a person’s capacity to stay grounded in their experience. To protect itself, the nervous system disconnects or dissociates from the overwhelmed part. And so the symptoms appear as flight, fight or freeze responses in the body.

When trauma is not swiftly integrated after the triggering event, it remains stored in the nervous system and leaves lasting aftereffects, affecting not only the individual but also the culture, the society and the world.

The difference between a traumatic event and trauma

Anna Freud explains that we must distinguish between the traumatic event that unfolds in reality and the trauma that arises from how that event is represented.

In the psychological context, the traumatic event refers to the overwhelming occurrence or experience that causes an emotional or psychological disturbance. For instance, a car accident, an act of violence or a natural disaster can be considered traumatic events. These are specific and often sudden occurrences that cause a psychic shock or wound.

The term “trauma” refers to the lasting and often complex psychological consequences of the traumatic event. It is the prolonged impact that the event has on the individual. Symptoms such as anxiety, nightmares and flashbacks are manifestations of trauma. It can be about the way the traumatic experience is integrated (or left unintegrated) within the person’s psyche, affecting their behaviour, their emotions and their relationships over the long term.

In short, the “traumatic event” refers to the disturbing event itself, while “trauma” refers to the prolonged effects and the psychological responses that result from that event.

It is not the event itself but its response within us

Thomas Hübl says: “Trauma is not the experience we go through that is overwhelming, painful and overloading for our body, our nervous system, our emotional experience, our mental experience. Rather, trauma describes the response that arises within us, in a traumatising situation.”

Trauma refers to a crystallised moment of our past: whether it belongs to our childhood, to our ancestors, to our culture, or even to the history of humanity. Everything that is not tended to, not integrated into our experience, repeats itself. It is like a part that stays frozen in time, unable to receive an update.

Recognising trauma

It is easier to recognise the impact of a specific event — like a road accident — than the impact of something we have always and only known. In that case, we have no other point of reference. This is what Dr Gabor Maté calls the myth of normal, in his landmark book “The Myth of Normal”. What we are used to is not “normal” — it is simply what we have known so far, it is familiar. And it is not necessarily healthy. The first step toward integrating trauma is becoming aware of this frozen, harmful energy.

The different types of trauma

There are many ways to classify trauma. Here are a few:

Developmental trauma:

The process of attachment is fragile. It requires sensitivity and it flourishes in relationship. When a child’s essential needs go unmet, this can give rise to deep pain.

The emotional and psychological wounds that result can profoundly shape the individual’s development, their way of perceiving the world and their capacity to form healthy relationships.

Intergenerational trauma:

Here the wound relates to the burden passed down from generation to generation. Our forebears may have lived through utterly overwhelming situations such as war, colonialism, genocide, systematic oppression or natural disasters. If the imprint of what they experienced could not be tended to, that burden will be passed on to the generations that follow.

This can shape behavioural patterns, beliefs, emotions, the level of stress and even the physiology of their descendants. Evidence has been found that trauma can be transmitted between generations through epigenetic pathways. This means that the trauma endured by a forebear, if left unintegrated, can affect the way genes are expressed.

Collective trauma:

We speak of collective trauma when the harrowing situations mentioned above could not be tended to by collective memory. This can then have a profound impact, touching the very architecture of society and weighing on entire generations. This dynamic is present in our society today.

We will return to these vast and crucial subjects in other articles. For now, let us come back to the image of the wound:

The two parts of the wound

The raw part of the wound is like what gets activated within us by a trigger: when we carry trauma, a glance, a word, a tone of voice can shake us to the core. What we feel may seem disconnected from the present situation — and yet something in the present has reactivated a pain from the past. The nervous system is perpetually overloaded by these unprocessed burdens from the past. It has no room left, and it goes off at the slightest provocation.

The rigid part of the wound is like the dissociation that can take place within us: we no longer feel anything. The ability to go numb and act on autopilot allows us to keep functioning in a given situation without panicking. This is what makes it possible, for instance, for someone to keep rescuing people in the midst of war.

Trauma is not a malfunction

Today, we often hear trauma spoken of in very negative terms, as something we ought to get rid of. And yet it is a deeply intelligent and necessary process that developed over the course of human evolution: it can save our life and the lives of those around us, and it saved the lives of our ancestors.

An intelligent and necessary function

Trauma is not a flaw or a weakness. It is a highly effective tool of safety and survival.

— Resmaa Menakem

In moments of intense upheaval, we can split off a part of our inner experience by shutting down, going numb or dissociating in order to survive more easily. This split-off part holds all the stress, the emotional and physical pain — all that “too much” the organism then had to protect itself from in order to ensure its survival.

The aftereffects of this fragmentation

After the event, or the series of events, we carry the aftereffects of this fragmentation within us. This fragmented part, which holds all the intensity of the stress and of the physical and emotional pain, is still there. And so we disconnect from our bodily awareness and from our emotions, either numbing ourselves so as not to hurt too much, or withdrawing inward. This fragmented part is there, but it is mute. It screams, yet without a sound.

And the two parts of the wound will resurface in our experience and become activated in moments that trigger unintegrated trauma: we may feel either disconnected, petrified, numb, or hyper-activated in terms of our emotions or our level of stress. Swinging between being too numb and too activated, we cannot then find the middle path that would let us respond adequately to the situation. We react from our unintegrated past.

Conclusion

In conclusion, trauma, though often perceived as a malfunction, is in reality an intelligent and necessary response of the body in the face of stressful or overwhelming events. Understanding what trauma is allows us to better grasp this natural reaction and to recognise its crucial role in our survival and our adaptation. By cultivating this understanding, we can approach trauma with more compassion and with strategies better suited to fostering long-term healing and well-being. We can nourish our curiosity