Trauma and Recovery

The Study of Trauma – A Brief History

The political environment may either support or impede the study of psychological trauma. The first serious studies of so-called “hysteria,” led by French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot, took place in the late 19th century. Charcot recorded the symptoms of female hysteria from a scientific perspective, yet he did not wish to look at a patient’s thoughts or feelings, or find a cure. His followers, particularly Pierre Janet and Sigmund Freud, talked with hysterics to understand the causes of their symptoms. They found that “hysteria was caused by psychological trauma.” The recovery of traumatic memories through the interaction between a doctor and a patient became the root of modern psychotherapy. In 1896, Freud published The Aetiology of Hysteria, in which he postulated that “premature sexual experience,” in other words, child abuse, was the root cause of hysteria. Considering the large number of women with hysteria who came to his practice, he quickly repudiated his own work realizing that if all hysteria was the product of child abuse, then this type of perversion was more widespread than he and European society were willing...