Memory, Trauma and Narratives of the Self

This insightful book explores the impact of traumatic experiences on the constitution of narrative identity. Editors Edmundo Balsemão Pires, Cláudio Alexandre S. Carvalho, and Joana Ricarte bring together multidisciplinary experts to examine the epistemic and ethical-political value of narrative memory, demonstrating its significance in forming essential aspects of the self and collective identity.

Challenging the idea of memory as a static, easily accessible and transferable repository, contributing authors instead present it as a dynamic process influenced by historical, therapeutic, artistic and political factors. Analysing the lasting impact of traumatic events, they assess the history of trauma therapy and use novel case studies to identify the role and nature of memory. Chapters investigate traumatic reenactments, conscious and unconscious attempts to suppress and appropriate memories, and the narrative coherence of origins, belonging and purposes. Ultimately, the book provides an integrative paradigm for understanding trauma that accounts for the psychic, social and political conditions which shape its categorization, identification and treatment.

Bringing together transdisciplinary theoretical models and empirical methodologies to forge new paths for the field, this book is an essential resource for academics and students in political science, sociology, psychology and psychoanalysis, the philosophy of memory and trauma studies.