Reframing Trauma Through Social Justice: Resisting the Politics of Mainstream Trauma Discourse

This cross-disciplinary volume examines and reframes trauma as a social and political issue in the context of wider society, critiquing the widely accepted pathologizing of trauma and violence in current discourse.

Rooted in critical social theory, this insightful text reinvokes the critiques and analysis of the women’s movement and the ＂personal is political＂ framing of trauma to unpack the mainstreaming of trauma discourse which has emerged today. Accomplished contributors address the social construction of femininity and masculinity in relation to trauma and violence, and advocate for a broader framing of trauma away from the constrained focus on pathologizing and diagnosing trauma, individual psychologizing and therapy. Instead, the book offers a fresh and compelling look at how discursive resistance, alternative feminist and narrative approaches to emotional distress and the mental health effects of violence can be developed alongside community-based, preventive, political and policy-based actions to create effective shifts in discourse, practice, policy and programming.

This is fascinating reading for upper-level undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers and academics in a broad range of fields of study, including psychology, social work, gender and women’s studies and sociology, as well as for professionals, including policy makers, clinical psychologists and social workers.

Catrina Brown is a Professor at the School of Social Work and is cross-appointed to Gender and Women’ Studies at Dalhousie University, Canada. She served as the Graduate Coordinator at the School of Social Work for 15 years until recently. Her work focuses on social justice approaches to women’s health and mental health issues including trauma, post-trauma, relational injury, substance use problems, depression, and ＂eating disorders＂ within a feminist postmodern/narrative lens.