Trauma, Disaster, Resilience

Abstract In Chapters 5 to 7, the idea of individual self-responsibility in law, of self-mastery and free choice, and the ideas of inwardness and originality are explored. In Chapters 9 to 12, individual and individual and collective liberation are in focus. In this and the subsequent chapter, elementary forms of cultural “freedom to” are explored. If we understand freedom as the ability to gain creative leeway in the context of given dependencies, freedom is not a given but has to be gained, enacted, and shaped within contexts of given dependencies. In some extreme cases, these contexts of given dependencies may be disastrous and even traumatic. In this chapter, I define and provide examples for cultural trauma, collective disaster, and cultural resilience. While cultural trauma is difficult to grasp and undermines resilience, resilience is an essential capacity for maintaining freedom in the face of disaster.