#15, Małgorzata Wosińska, Personal Belonging and Collective Trauma

#15 Trauma as a response to an injury/stressor can affect all of us. At the level of the body and its physiology, different people may have similar symptoms, primarily resulting from increased production of hormones (such as adrenaline, noradrenaline, endorphins or cortisol), which are activated unconditionally in a life-threatening situation. The overproduction of hormones – understood as a defence mechanism (or dissociation) – is desirable during an injury since it relieves pain and very often saves a life. However, persistent activation of hormones in post-traumatic reality (i.e. in the post-war world in which a human being does not have to function in fight mode) may cause pathological symptoms at the structural level (i.e. insomnia, irritability, tendency to dissociate, neurological symptoms, depression and mania, psychotic disorders, nightmares, strong excitation, apathy, tendency to substance abuse). This state of constant threat, which is experienced at the physiological/internal level but is inadequate for the reality of the outer world, is usually called “trauma.

Małgorzata Wosińska is a genocide anthropologist and psychotraumatologist and a senior lecturer of the NOHA Network on Humanitarian Action at the Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Warsaw, Poland. Her research interests cover a range of topics from critical Holocaust and genocide studies to museum and forensic studies. In addition to her research, she works on a daily basis with witnesses of traumatic events, including war refugees in Europe.

BBC interview with Malgorzata:
BBC World Service - Heart and Soul, Poland's Jews: Caught between, never home

Join us at the workshop on 27th of March, 6pm at Her Space in Oslo. The workshop is on relational well-being, focusing on inner boundaries, inner witness and relating from that space.

Registration her: https://forms.gle/ZN5Jtg19UZg5da3A8