Psychoanalytic psychotherapist and journalist. Scientific interests include feminist psychoanalysis, sexuality, psychoanalysis of motherhood, and gender aspects in psychotherapy.
Terms used in daily speech often get devalued, like fabric fading from multiple washes. Betrayal, victory, depression—the list goes on. Trauma, as a psychological term, is no exception. The literal translation of “trauma” from Greek is “wound.” While the medical meaning is clear, what mental trauma is, how it differs from stress, and why its consequences can haunt us lifelong, preventing full living—this is not obvious to everyone.
Mental trauma can be caused by an object (e.g., a person inflicting psychological or physical violence) or an event (war, catastrophe, death of a loved one). As early as 1895, Freud wrote in Studies on Hysteria that “any event causing painful feelings of fear, shame, or mental suffering can have a traumatic effect”]. The intensity required to cause trauma is subjective. Like illness, trauma can be acute or chronic.
Unlike trauma, stress is a response to less dramatic personal events, usually resulting in two known reactions—fight-or-flight or freeze. Trauma occurs when emotional or affective processes are so overwhelming that none of these strategies work. Stress is an inevitable life part; trauma threatens functioning. Simply put, stress is a dent in a flexible surface that later straightens, trauma—a dent in metal.
Freud, investigating trauma practically, concluded that its roots lie in early childhood, where so-called primitive survival strategies form. Primitive because children have fewer flexible response options. Childhood traumas cement these mechanisms for life; thus, adults often resort to primitive defenses.
Repression
Psychoanalysis, unlike other therapies, recognizes the unconscious as part of the psyche. Attention is on defense mechanisms operating unconsciously, protecting the Ego (or consciousness) from “the uncomfortable external world, creating a rendition in which one can act fearlessly”]. Psychological defenses thus have two sides: protecting consciousness from unbearable feelings triggered by unconscious impulses or external interactions, but also distorting reality, blocking contact with it and access to one’s feelings. “If reality causes discomfort, truth is sacrificed”]. Facing trauma, the psyche distorts reality or uses “I don’t remember, so it didn’t happen.”
Repression is a core defense removing unbearable feelings into the unconscious. Nancy McWilliams stressed] repression differs from simple forgetting—it only covers experiences dangerous to psyche stability, acting as a safeguard when tension threatens mental stability. Similarly, dissociation detaches painful feelings—fear, shame, anger—and the feeling of detachment from the event. Many disaster or violence survivors say they saw themselves from aside during trauma, feeling no emotion.
One might think repression protects and life goes on; however, repressed trauma continues influencing. Mental self-preservation meant to protect from further trauma also becomes resistance to spontaneous self-expression in interaction with the world]. Freud said trauma “acts like a foreign body that stays active long after penetration”].
Why is overcoming trauma so hard?
Often, retraumatization stems from the impossible cessation of the trauma source, especially for women in toxic relationships. External factors (the abuser) and internal psychological defenses both play a role. The concept of “consent to dissatisfaction”] by Sandor Ferenczi describes how the psyche, confronted with trauma, compromises by masking dissatisfaction as normalcy to avoid associated feelings, pretending the abusive relationship is normal.
Ferenczi also described identification with the aggressor, akin to “Stockholm syndrome,” named after a 1973 Stockholm bank hostage case when hostages sided with captors. Trauma induces psychological regression, pushing the psyche to primitive defenses formed in childhood. The unbearable fear of abuse forces the psyche to erase the aggressor from reality and merge with them. The fight becomes internal; the child mimics the abuser to predict and meet their wishes, assuming guilt to preserve some control. This mechanism explains why women find it hard to leave abusive relationships shaped by family violence and systemic patriarchal oppression, fuelling self-blame and identification with the abuser. This also partly explains why some women reject feminist perspectives on domestic violence and inequality.
Confronted with rejection of feelings, a child may blame their own “defect,” carrying this false belief for life, substituting subjective reality with an alien one. Like identification with the aggressor, this preserves connection, e.g., with an emotionally unavailable partner.
Object relations theorists propose that significant childhood figures internalize as psyche components. Abuse places these figures as “attackers” inside, like an inner critic. The trauma environment causes confusion about acceptable treatment. Thus, defense mechanisms maintain psychic homeostasis but trap trauma in a vicious cycle.
Learned helplessness
The term was coined by psychologist Martin Seligman studying depression causes and coping. In 1967, using shock experiments with dogs, he showed animals that couldn’t control shocks became passive, unlike those who could avoid them. Similar human studies showed a “explanatory style” where victims blamed themselves, harming motivation and emotion. Seligman proposed “learned optimism,” achievable by teaching alternative reactions. Unlike psychoanalysis, this approach emphasizes cognitive-behavioral strategies over unconscious work, explaining why trauma recovery is hard based only on experience and feelings.
Influence of gender socialization on trauma experience
Mental health is closely linked to gender socialization affecting personal realization, security, and socio-economic status. WHO data] show psychiatric disorder prevalence is similar for men and women, but women suffer nearly twice the depression rate worldwide. Risk is three to four times higher for women exposed to gender-based violence in childhood or adulthood. For instance, almost one-third of rape survivors develop PTSD.
Understanding women’s trauma responses requires recognizing social antecedents. Psychoanalysis was long critiqued for excessive internal focus, ignoring external factors. Feminist and interdisciplinary approaches balanced objective realities—material dependence, oppression, unequal resource access, culture, norms—and subjective mental realities. Heidegger argued there is no subject apart from the world].
Traditional gender roles assigned women to family/private/emotional and men to profession/public/rational, shaping psychological response expectations. Outdated theories like “wandering womb” justified female psychological inferiority. Psychiatry served to control rebellious women. Such stereotypes framed women’s trauma disorders as sex-determined illnesses. Meanwhile, men’s trauma was stigmatized and silenced, blocking help-seeking.
Feminist therapy foregrounds systemic discrimination as trauma genesis in women. Miriam Greenspan highlighted internalized self-directed anger]. Patriarchal culture sanctions male aggression and suppresses female aggression, which converts to auto-aggression through identification with the aggressor. Quoting Joseph Heller: “Girls under 25 are agreeable and sweet. After 25, still agreeable but sad, which is not so sweet”].
Patronizing paternalism infantilizes women, stifling autonomy. Economic dependence replicates female minority akin to earlier eras when women’s external contact needed male guardians. Psychoanalyst Alice Miller noted psychodynamic strategies build client understanding of frustration and suppressed anger causes, important in trauma therapy].
Learning to express aggression without guilt is vital in all trauma work, including disaster or loss. Feminism does not make women aggressive but equalizes emotional expression rights.
Healing environment
Trauma shatters safety illusions, triggering core anxieties—fear of death, loss, sudden destruction. This difference from others’ worlds causes isolation and loneliness. Psychotherapy builds belief in being heard and identifies with others who overcome trauma. For women, support groups play a similar role.
Louise Russell criticized traditional therapy ignoring women’s social experience]. She praised female support groups’ emotional aid, mutual care, activism, and refusal to let men define them. She stressed knowing violence experience is common helps healing.
Sisterly support and group identification create new internal objects and resolve internal wars with painful ghosts.
Why talk about it?
Psychodynamic therapists aim to recreate trauma vividly to bring it to status nascendi (birth) and verbalize it]. Therapy supports expression and confronts trauma as abnormal. Feminist flashmob #IAmNotAfraidToSpeak does similar public naming. Freud said, “An insult answered at least in words is remembered differently than suffered silently”[].
Though painful, this process changes women from abuse objects to agents[], restoring control and fostering flexible defenses and openness.
Collective trauma
Public discussion of historic trauma or systemic discrimination transforms unconscious collective trauma to conscious, lightening burden on groups or individuals.
Feminism has publicly addressed this for 150+ years, exposing sexual and reproductive violence, wage gaps, motherhood expectations, objectification, and exploitation. Change is slow where discrimination is cultural norm and women’s voices scarce.
Recent Moroccan protests show courage to reject abuse-normalizing laws, but stigma and trauma internalization persist worldwide. Misogyny and inferiority complexes perpetuate trauma generationally.
Psychotherapy helps people author their lives, but cannot shield from state abuse and societal trauma alone. Solidarity with activist movements is key to more humane, just society.
This translation preserves the meaning and nuance of the original text with appropriate technical and cultural terms for an English-speaking audience. Citations correspond to the original Ukrainian sources as footnotes. The translation follows the intended goal of clearly conveying the academic and activist discourse of trauma and feminism.