Liberation is Possible
Anthony "Twig" Wheeler - Cultural Animator, Trauma Specialist & Applied Human Ecologist

Origins of Trauma
In search of A Reason for All The Pain or Somewhere Something Went Terribly Wrong

Fortunately, today we know trauma isn't just the result of a bad thing that happened to us but a biological process of self-protection that got stuck. This makes the body feel like a danger is still happening, sometimes for years after the original danger.

Knowing about the biology behind truama can help us get out of this "stuckness" and return to a feeling of well-being. That's good. We're left with a question though?

If trauma is bad for us and biologically based why does it exist at all? This project is dedicated to tracking into that question. By understanding the origins and historical dynamics of trauma, we have a much better chance of helping it go away.

A little more background

I've been looking for "a reason for all the pain" for as long as I can remember. From 2002 - 2008 I made a formal study on the origins of traumatic stress in the human species. This blog project, bit by bit, shares my findings.

If I've made any meaningful contribution to the field of traumatology it is to suggest that trauma has a fundamental relationship with the advent and rise of complex society (i.e. civilization).

Any real desire to comprehensively address truamatization in the social body needs to include an investigatio of orgins: just how it got to be like this in the first place.

2008

Trauma Origins

Somewhere Something Went Terribly Wrong Essay

This article is currently my best written explanation of how accumulated stress [trauma] works in an auto-catalyitic relationship with the development of complex society. It doesn’t name or go into all the dynamics involved. Nor is it’s logic completely up to date with my current thinking on the subject. On top of that it was written principally for Somatic Experiencing students & practitioners, so it uses some specialized language that won’t be immediately useful to everyone. All of that being said, I do believe the ideas, research and general arch in this article is in the right direction. I think the article explains some things about the origins of trauma in a more coherent way than many of the theories out there and at least greatly aids the discussion of what ails us. It’s entirely understandable for non-clinicians once you get past the first few paragraphs and I encourage you to take the few moments it will take to read it. I have spent more than ten years refining this investigation and argument, I will have much more to share as time goes on.

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