3 – From Trauma to a New Philosophy of Life

3 – From Trauma to a New Philosophy of Life

You don’t know that you have a soul until someone tries to steal it. But once you are aware of the theft – or attempted theft – you start searching for the remnants of your soul. The soul may not be missing, just mangled and permanently damaged. The need to cope with life leads us away from science to philosophy. More specifically, it leads us to change our philosophy of life.

Most of us, I think, are unaware that we do have a philosophy of life already. We may be unaware of it, but culture has shaped it within us. We were raised and educated to believe that external relations were all that existed. People were like billiard balls moving on a flat surface, interacting, competing, manipulating, but always distinct egos striving to control their lives. Pragmatism was our hidden philosophy of life, objectification our behavioral habit, and survival our ultimate goal. Life became a kind of chess board on which people were pawns striving to become castles, bishops, queens and kings with greater mobility and power. The losers, or the victims, were devalued and shamed, pawns removed from the playing field.

If there were another philosophy of life, victimization would no longer be normal, and victims could overcome shame, restore self-esteem, and live fruitful lives. That philosophy is a form of ancient Stoicism, and today there are quite a few authors pointing that out. Stoicism, like Zen, is a really a cluster of practices or exercises to sustain a meaningful life. These resemble the techniques taught by therapists for people struggling with PTSD:

·                     Concentrating on what really matters

·                     Eliminating needless worries

·                     Exposing emotional traps

·                     Letting go regrets

·                     Facing inevitability

·                     Surrendering ego

·                     Embracing virtue

·                     Grounding identity

Behind these spiritual practices there lies a conviction that people are not locked into external relations only, but that in fact they are part of a universal network of internal relations. Every human being is intrinsically related to every other being, and to the nature, and to reason, and to the universe itself. By internal relation, I mean that every human being intrinsically participates in the nature of every other human being, and every soul is intrinsically linked to a greater universal order that is the ground of all truth, goodness, and beauty.

             Stoic practices go beyond therapeutic techniques. A trauma survivor or person with PTSD can step away from shame, overcome the habit of dissociation, and rediscover their own personal worth. You do not need to convince yourself that you are a good, beautiful, and reasonable person. The “gods” or “God” stamps you with a divine image, so to speak, and legitimize you as a good, beautiful, and reasonable person, even despite any low opinion of yourself you might have. In a world of internal relations, dissociation is no longer necessary. Indeed, it is no longer possible.