Traumatisierte Gegenwart? Zur Geschichte, Theorie und Konjunktur einer Diagnose / im Rahmen der Reihe "Theorien zur Praxis"

In the organizer's words:

As part of the "Theories on Practice" series

The term trauma is used today in psychology as well as in the fields of politics, media and everyday culture. According to this, not only can an individual be traumatized, but society as a whole is also shaped by collective shocks of the past. If this is the case, we live in a society in which injuries need to be dealt with and repaired. Society then needs resilience, comfort and healing in order to learn how to deal with current crises or wars.

But when and in what way was the psychiatric-psychological concept of trauma, which was originally tailored to the individual, transferred to other areas? How did it come about that our society today experiences and describes itself in terms of traumatic experiences? What insights are made possible by this expansion of the concept - and where might its inflation be misleading? Can entire societies be diagnosed and healed like individual people?

In the autumn edition of the "Theories on Practice" series, Prof. Dr. Philipp Felsch, cultural historian at the Humboldt University in Berlin, talks this time with the psychologist and trauma researcher Prof. Dr. Dr. Andreas Maercker from the University of Zurich.

The conversation takes place in the run-up to the special exhibition with the working title Mental Health, which will be on display at the DHMD from March 7, 2026.