Collective Trauma as a Personal/Social Concern for Persons within Marginalized Communities

Much of the literature about trauma has conceptualized trauma only as a personal and psychological issue (Herman, 1992). This paper is a departure from this as it attempts to shed light on trauma as a community process such as the complex community responses to the experience of pervasive and ongoing injurious acts. The authors, with assistance from a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council standard research grant, interviewed participants who are involved in community practice in three marginalized communities within two Canadian urban centers: 1) gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, transsexual, and queer people; 2) Aboriginal people; and 3) Salvadorian refugees to understand social disruption that results from marginalization based on identity. In this paper, we argue that such a disruption, trauma, is shared across communities even if experienced differentially.  We found that the participants’ experiences of trauma were expressed as both a personal and as a shared experience. Because of shared community identity, one did not have to experience the traumatic event personally to share in it. The participants of the research understood trauma to be deleterious and harmful but also allowed for an openness and affinity to others within their communities. Thus, trauma, while having serious negative impacts from its origins in social prejudice and mistreatment from outside the community, can also be seen as a basis for organization and resistance within marginalized diverse communities.