De toenemende gevolgen van traumatische gebeurtenissen

Samenvatting

The Increasing Effects of Traumatic Events. A review essay on a book by Jolande Withuis, Erkenning. Van oorlogstrauma naar klaagcultuur ([Recognition. Postwar Trauma of the Complaint Culture] Amsterdam: De Bezige Big, 2002). The theme of the book is the belated recognition of the traumatic effects of WWII and the subsequent emergence of a 'culture of complaint' in the Netherlands since the 1970s. This article focuses on the social context of this development from a long-term perspective. According to Withuis, public opinion after the war was dominated by the idea that the Dutch nation as a whole had struggled heroically against the common enemy and by worries about a moral breakdown afterwards. As a consequence, the Jewish survivors of the genocide were under pressure to keep silent. Only 20 years later did the possibilities for speaking out about this and many other traumas increase significantly, in connection with processes of democratization and 'emancipation of emotions.' Unfortunately, according to Withuis, this ended in a culture of complaint and a proliferation of dubious claims by all kinds of self-defined victims. This is only one part of the story, however. Postwar changes can be understood within the framework of the long-term trend of growing networks of human interdependence, which is the basic condition for, on the one hand, the growing scale of potentially traumatizing events (wars, terrorism, disasters, media events) and, on the other, the tendency toward widening identification with victims and increasing sensitivity to pain. The interactions among involved groups who together 'produce' recognized traumas (victims, therapists, government officials, lawyers, journalists) are viewed from this long-term and figurational perspective. Adapted from the source document.