Trauma: Ancient phenomenon which predates our modern societies

After reading reports on PTSD for almost 30 years, it is about time this connection was taken seriously. If you are a reader of the Bible, look back into the Old Testament with a fresh set of eyes aware of what PTSD is and you'll find it in passage after passage especially in the Psalms. You'll find it in Kings and Judges with accounts of warfare. This is a struggle between heaven and hell for the soul of a warrior. It is about what is good within them to be able to risk their lives for the sake of others against what they have to do to achieve what they were sent to do. If you limit their mission to "destroy" the enemy you'll never understand this. If you look beyond into why they do it, you'll see it was for a great purpose than that. Ask any combat veteran why they did it and they'll answer, "we fought for each other."

Call for Papers: Trauma and Traumatization: In and Beyond Biblical Literature
Maybe, one day, when I have all the money I want, and all the time needed:

International Conference, June 6th – 9th, 2012

Department of Biblical Studies, Faculty of Theology, Aarhus University (Aarhus, Denmark)

Announcement: Call for Papers is now open (see details below) Deadline: September 30th, 2011

Since the effect of the Vietnam War on the individual psyche of American soldiers was first defined in the 1980’s as “PTSD” (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), trauma has become a central term of psychiatric diagnosis and therapy. In consequence, terms like ‘traumatic memory’, ‘trauma narrative’, and ‘trauma and testimony’ have been used to describe various individual and collective incidents in both present (e.g. September 11, 2001; the war in Iraq and Afghanistan up to 2010) and past tense (e.g. the Holocaust).

Trauma, however, is not only a modern concept which derives from 20th century psychiatry: It is an ancient phenomenon which predates our modern societies. Thus, the question of how the psychological impact and social characteristics of trauma can be defined for each period in history is central to the current trauma‐discourse: Here, psychiatry meets the Humanities (e.g. history, art history, sociology, politics, religion).

Since traumata affect nearly all areas of social and cultural life, reflection upon them as well as developing the ability to overcome them goes beyond pure medical science. In this frame, biblical and para‐biblical literature plays an important role: It reflects more than 1500 years of coping with traumatic incidents (e.g. temple destruction, exile, exodus, wars, passion narratives, martyrdoms, persecutions), and thus provides a substantial contribution to our understanding of trauma in both historic and modern contexts.
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