Book

Reflections on the Meaning of Trauma

Dr. Ayman Badr Kareem

Publication date: July 19, 2026 22:54 KSA

Many tend to reduce trauma to a violent and sudden event: a horrific car accident, or the loss of a loved one. However, focusing on the event itself often obscures the essence of the traumatic experience; the issue is not only about the incident, but about the rift it causes in the soul in the sense of security, worth, or entitlement. The event passes in a short external time, while trauma settles as suspended internal time, in which the person remains stuck for a long time.

Perhaps much of what we today call 'psychological disorders', 'abnormal behaviors', or 'personality disorders' is in reality old survival attempts, adaptive responses to a self that was wounded early on, and then continued to suffer even after circumstances changed. For example, when a child experiences emotional psychological traumas, he may be forced –unconsciously– to swallow his fear, suppress his feelings, and stifle his anger, just to maintain his connection with his family members and the acceptance of his small community. These small sacrifices accumulate to create an adult with repressed emotions, a tense body, and a troubled relationship with himself and others. As a result of the inability to say 'no', the body bears witness to this repression in the form of psychosomatic symptoms, chronic diseases, and constant exhaustion. These symptoms and diseases are not necessarily a pure biological disorder; rather, they may be a physical protest against chronic nervous tension, unbearable life conditions, and a culture that glorifies productivity and social success, downplays the need for emotional care and behavioral and psychological treatments, and demands that we be 'normal' in an inhumane, and sometimes unethical, environment.

Exposure to trauma is not a purely individual matter; it is also a reflection of a society that legitimizes cruelty, and underestimates the psychological impact of everyday violence, the violence of neglect, humiliation, depletion, burnout, and emotional exploitation. Perhaps the greatest challenge in dealing with trauma is the restoration of the sense of internal entitlement, and of the human right to feel, to be angry, to set boundaries, and to ask for support without shame. Here, therapeutic practice –in its various forms– becomes a humane, ethical, compassionate work; it acknowledges human fragility, listens to repressed suffering, and preserves dignity simultaneously, so that trauma ceases to be a closed prison; becoming the beginning of a new awareness of the self, its right to safety, and its first step in breaking the cycle of pain.

Psychological disorders accident