According to its advocates, collective trauma evokes a variety of responses, most prominently through substance abuse, which is used as a vehicle for attempting to numb pain.
This model seeks to use this to explain other self-destructive behavior, such as suicidal thoughts and gestures, depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, anger, violence, and difficulty recognizing and expressing emotions.
For example, the traumatisation of many individuals may not be considered collective, unless their traumatic experiences are used as key identity markers in public discourses and/or as a way of self-expression/-definition.
[6] Furthermore, a distinction can be made between collective identity markers which in practice are all highly interwoven: Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart first developed the concept of historical trauma while working with Lakota communities in the 1980s.
Yellow Horse Brave Heart's scholarship focused on the ways in which the psychological and emotional traumas of colonisation, relocation, assimilation, and American Indian boarding schools have manifested within generations of the Lakota population.
Other significant original research on the mechanisms and transmission of intergenerational trauma has been done by scholars such as Daniel Schechter, whose work builds on the pioneers in this field such as: Judith Kestenberg, Dori Laub, Selma Fraiberg, Alicia Lieberman, Susan Coates, Charles Zeanah, Karlen Lyons-Ruth, Yael Danieli, Rachel Yehuda and others.
Daniel Schechter's work has included the study of experimental interventions that may lead to changes in trauma-associated mental representation and may help in the stopping of intergenerational cycles of violence.
[7][8] Joy DeGruy's book, Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, analyzes the manifestation of historical trauma in African American populations, and its correlation to the lingering effects of slavery.
It included interviews with scientist Rachel Yehuda, sociologist Melissa Walls, and Anton Treuer along with first hand testimonies of Dakota, Lakota, Ojibwe and Blackfeet tribal members.
Rehabilitation of survivors becomes extremely difficult when an entire nation has experienced such severe traumas as war, genocide, torture, massacre, etc.
Trauma remains chronic and can potentially reproduce itself as long as social causes are not addressed and perpetrators continue to enjoy impunity.
[17] Inculcation of horror and anxiety, through widespread torture, massacre, genocide and similar coercive measures has happened frequently in human history.
Tyrants have always used their technique of "psychological artillery" in an attempt to cause havoc and confusion in the minds of people and hypnotize them with intimidation and cynicism.
[23] The term Indigenous Historical Trauma (IHT) can be useful to explain emotions and other psychological phenomena experienced by Native Americans today.
[24] The broader concept of Historical Trauma was developed from this, and gained footing in the clinical and health science literatures in the first two decades of the 21st century.
In 2019, a team of psychologists at the University of Michigan published a systematic review of the literature so far on the relationship between IHT and adverse health outcomes for Indigenous peoples in the United States and Canada.
[24] An example of Indigenous Historical Trauma is the "Indian boarding schools" created in the 19th century to acculturate Native Americans to European culture.
[25] These schools attempted to strip children of their cultural identity by practices such as cutting off their long hair, or forbidding them to speak their native language.
But scientific research has consistently found that the stress caused by Indian boarding schools (due to mistreatment and sexual abuse) resulted in depression.
Descendants of boarding school survivors may carry this historical trauma for generations, and in the present day, Native American students still face challenges related to their lack of awareness of "psychological injury or harm from ancestral experiences with colonial violence and oppression".
Within Native American communities, high rates of alcoholism and suicide have direct correlation to the violence, mistreatment, and abuses experienced at boarding schools, and the loss of cultural heritage and identity these institutions facilitated.
[28] Countries like Australia and Canada have issued formal apologies for their involvement in the creation and implementation of boarding schools that facilitated and perpetuated historical trauma.
[29] Both reports also detail the problems facing Indigenous populations today, such as economic and health disparities, and their connection to the historical trauma of colonization, removal, and forced assimilation.
Historical traumas impart their consequences indiscriminately upon child and family, institution and society, custom and culture, value and belief.
Collective traumas on the societal level can lead to a vast range on mental health problems, including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, and disassociation.
These changed the cultural norms in Sri Lankan society, and created a negative environment where communities tended to be more dependent, passive, silent, without leadership, mistrustful, and suspicious.
It takes the forms of individual counseling or therapy, spiritual help, and group or entire community gatherings, which are all important aspects in the foundations of the healing process.
Treatment should be aimed at a renewal of destroyed culture, spiritual beliefs, customs, and family connections, and a focus on reaffirming one's self-image and place within a community.
[41] This can be done by educating people on racial -ethnic socialization, which is the process where children develop the behaviors, perceptions, values and attitudes of an ethnic group, and how they identify themselves and others in relation to those beliefs.
Therapist, writer, and founder of the Embodiment Institute, Prentis Hemphill explains:Oppression is actually how society organizes itself to control and distribute trauma.