The reason that I am writing this post is to offer a rationale for including an entire Chapter entitled Trauma And Related Topics later on.
Doing streetwork in the early 1990’s alerted me, at first hand, to how difficult the challenges were for young people growing up in families where many members suffer from trauma. I also realised how little I and my fellow community workers knew about the origins of trauma and its effects.
Just for now, what I mean by the effects of trauma is its systemic nature.
(I will be devoting an entire Chapter in Section Three on Systems Theory, but until then, when I use the term systemic I simply mean how everything affects everything else).
That is, is how trauma affects the individual who is suffering, and then shows itself within the family, the extended family, the community, society at large and indeed globally. And, as a general comment, it became clear to me that people, even generous and responsible people who want to make a positive difference, have no idea or understanding what alienation does to people who have already suffered trauma – and, more importantly – how inclusion and a genuine felt sense of belonging ameliorates it.
This is why I include what I consider to be important Chapters on both Systems Theory and Trauma And Related Topics. These Chapters are longish but I believe that appreciation of both is vital to understanding why supporting very distressed children and young people in families affected by imprisonment to effect substantial reduction of crime always appear to be beyond us as a society.
We often say that such young people fall through the cracks.[1]. Now that oft-used expression has always intrigued me! I am reminded of Leonard Cohen encouraging us to be grateful for cracks because, as he says in his song ‘Anthem’ – that’s how the light gets in.
And, indeed, he’s right, the light does get in.
Because, from trauma might emerge wonderful creativity, original thought, outside the box thinking and understanding of the essence of life, common sense, and indeed profound reflection on the meaning of life all of which can be harnessed, and used for healing distress.
Since recorded history began, and probably before it, emotional problems (including criminal behaviour, which I deem to be rooted in emotional problems) have defied quick-fix solutions employed to resolve them [2]. (I will be revisiting quick-fix solutions in later Chapters).
All the quick-fixes have one thing in common – they are efforts by humans to techno fix emotional problems in other humans. This undoubtedly reflects the desperation of humanity to do something tangible about emotional difficulties and behaviours that we observe in loved ones and/or experience ourselves.
But despite a lot of false dawns there is not much evidence that the fast-tracking of emotional healing has ever had long-term success in individuals and families in deep distress.
For myself, I have come to the conclusion that, because of the existence of trauma and related phenomena that arise from trauma, any resolution of emotional problems will be slow and painstaking, and, indeed, rushing solutions often does more harm than good.
I believe this to be true both at a personal and societal level.
Nowadays, trauma, at long last, is becoming recognised as a causative factor in young people choosing to drop out of school and get involved in destructive behaviours.
My fervent hope is that this new-found interest doesn’t result in the initiation of another fast-tracked quick-fix which will be rolled out but which will, in the long term, have as much success as the methods referred to in footnote [2]!
[1]. I often wonder if I had grown up in an environment where a majority of families were affected by trauma, would I have been resilient enough to stay in school, get a job, steer clear of drugs etc. And that, of course, is a circular question, because I suppose much of my resilience was laid down in my early years and fashioned by the environment that I grew up in!
[2]. Prisons, exorcisms, blood leaching, invocation of spirits, threat of going to hell, laying on of hands, drowning of witches, exclusion in asylums, mood altering drugs, lobotomies, the death penalty, banishment and transportation, excommunication, even the (once upon a time) much publicised zero-tolerance.