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If you tell people that they are traumatized they will feel traumatized. It is a tempting framework with which to interpret the world because it grants unlimited unverifiable victimhood, which is the most coveted status of all for whatever reason.
I remember once I was talking to two nice, young, Mormon missionaries out of curiosity. I asked them what spiritual experiences they had which convinced them of their religion’s truth. One described to me that in high school she was in danger of failing her physics class right before the final exam. She prayed about it and felt an intuition that she should go to the professor and ask him for any extra prep materials, she interpreted this intuition as the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Upon visiting him he supplied her with some additional practice tests which she credited with helping her pass the class.
What she had was a normal human experience, 1) Not doing well in the class 2) Ask the teacher for additional assistance 3) Do better. An atheist would have this exact same experience without the Holy Spirit factoring in at all. But as they say, when all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail. When you are given an explanatory framework with which to understand the world, unsurprisingly you find confirming experiences everywhere you go.
Years ago at my first job my manager, an Indian woman, came to me and said in hushed tones “You know Daguerrean, this company has a real problem with recognizing women.” She went on to describe a slate of thoroughly normal complaints that every employee can empathize with, feeling underappreciated, her good ideas and hard work unrecognized, ignored in meetings and so forth. I mumbled something in agreement with her but internally I was thinking, “Uh, don’t you know everyone feels this way?” It’s just that White men aren’t given a framework that says every personal or professional setback is a result of an omnipresent and malicious “ism” seeking to destroy your life.
It reminds me of a TikTok trend, now a few years back, where parents would pretend to bump a baby’s head and fawn over it. Unsurprisingly the babies would often react as if they were experiencing real pain, crying and holding their heads. Adults are no different.
I think we aren’t (collectively) asking ourselves enough if the explanatory frameworks we give people are actually good. Is it better for people to believe that anything good that happens to them is the work of the Holy Spirit? Is it good if every professional setback is interpreted as evidence of racism/sexism? Is it good if people are reinterpreting every negative childhood experience as trauma that has scarred them for life?
How far we have come from St. Paul on the road to Damascus.
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