Trauma, time and information
ISSN: 0022-0418
Article publication date: 30 September 2021
Issue publication date: 3 January 2022
Abstract
Purpose
In this article the author would like to discuss information and the causal-temporal models as discussed in trauma theory and reports from trauma therapy. The article discusses two modes of temporality and the role of narrative explanations in informing the subject as to their past and present.
Design/methodology/approach
Conceptual analysis.
Findings
Information in trauma has different meanings, partly as a result of different senses of temporality that make up explanations of trauma in trauma theory. One important meaning is that of explanation itself as a cause or a therapeutic cure for trauma.
Research limitations/implications
The research proposes that trauma and trauma theory need to be understood in terms of the role of explanation, with explanation being understood as persuasion. This follows the historical genealogy of trauma theory from its origins in hypnosis and psychoanalysis.
Originality/value
The article examines the possibility of unconscious information and its effects in forming psychological subjectivity.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers and also Professors Jutta Haider, Melissa Adler and Jiangmei Wu, for their corrections and comments on earlier drafts of this article.
Citation
Day, R.E. (2022), "Trauma, time and information", Journal of Documentation, Vol. 78 No. 1, pp. 144-153. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-11-2020-0189
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited