By David Rettew, Psychology Today, February 22, 2023
The last decade of the 1990s was often labeled the “Decade of the Brain,” as many mental health clinicians and researchers emphasized biological and genetic factors as contributing to both mental health and illness. Over the last 15 or so years however, the pendulum has swung the other way, with a lot of focus on the role of traumatic and adverse experiences as the primary contributors to mental health disorders. Included in the expanded definition of adverse experiences are societal factors, often called social determinants of health, that include things such as poverty, racism, and lack of access to safe and healthy environments.
And as occurs routinely these days, the discussion about the causes underlying mental health problems has become infused with politics, which tends to lead to a more polarized debate. While there are always exceptions, the political left is often credited or blamed for pushing this concentration on the negative impacts of trauma.
The introduction of the trauma-informed care (TIC) model has brought with it not only changes in clinical understanding and treatment but also the need to alter our language and institutional practices in an effort to be more “trauma-informed.” This effort has met with some pushback, often from right-leaning individuals who complain that the definition of trauma has been watered down from its original intentions. Many of these folks also grumble about any insistence to be more sensitive in their language as part of the larger rebellion against “wokeness.”
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