Language matters
"The article by Nick Haslam raises an important concern about the broadening and dilution of the term 'trauma'. It’s true that modern culture increasingly applies the word to experiences ranging from catastrophic abuse to everyday embarrassment, and this risks flattening important distinctions in severity and functional impact. However, the answer is not to narrow the concept so aggressively that cumulative, coercive and prolonged forms of psychological injury become minimised or misunderstood. Many of the most devastating forms of harm are not single catastrophic events, but years of chronic relational abuse, coercive control, institutional betrayal, family violence or prolonged psychological destabilisation. These experiences may not always fit neatly within traditional PTSD frameworks, yet they can produce profound disablement, loss of livelihood, impaired functioning, deteriorating health and reduced life expectancy. The real challenge is not whether trauma exists, but whether our language has become too blunt to distinguish between ordinary distress, adversity, trauma exposure, and catastrophic psychological injury. Perhaps what is needed is not less compassion, but greater conceptual precision. Just as physical medicine distinguishes discomfort from catastrophic injury, mental health language may need clearer gradations that recognise both everyday struggles and severe, life-altering psychological devastation without collapsing them into the same category.”
Jon Wannberg, inaugural AASW Fellow

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