Witnessing in Action: Linkages Between Trauma and Social Activism

ABSTRACT

This paper examines linkages between diverse experiences of trauma and the subsequent pursuit of social activism. Using illustrations from a qualitative study sampling 10 social activists, it explores the advent of activism in the wake of significant trauma experiences they have endured. Drawing on psychoanalytic theory, the concept of “witnessing” was applied and three modes of witnessing were proposed to suggest potential psychic states and mental processes that are ignited within and through activism, which may facilitate processes of trauma transformation, subjectivity formation, and psychic aliveness. Consistent with dialectic tensions underlying trauma experiences, activism may also engender stagnation and re-traumatization.

Acknowledgments

I am profoundly indebted to Samuel Gerson, Ph.D., for his generous and insightful guidance, support, and mentorship throughout all stages of writing this paper. I would like to extend my gratitude to Anna Zozulinsky, PhD for her thoughtful comments on earlier versions of this paper. I would like to thank Amy Schwartz Cooney, Ph.D. Joint Editor-in-Chief, and the anonymous reviewers for helping me improve this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ For a review of the original research study, see Milo Haglili (2020a). For an analysis of two case studies based on the research study, see Milo Haglili (2020b).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ronna Milo Haglili

Ronna Milo Haglili, PsyD, is a bilingual (English-Hebrew), bicultural licensed clinical psychologist in private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area. She supervises, teaches, and provides individual and group therapy to the diverse population of San Jose area at the Bay Area Clinical Associates (BACA) mental health clinic. She has published and presented on her dissertation research exploring the potential links between trauma and social activism. She serves as the chair of the Education Committee of the Northern California Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology.