Understanding Trauma: Traumatic Experience, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, and Recovery in Cultural Context

This thesis considers the way that culture and context can influence and shape notions of trauma and recovery. The aim of this thesis was to explore a synthesis between post-traumtic stress disorder and divergent interpretations of the trauma experience from within two different cultural groups, Holocaust survivors and Sudanese refugees. Meaning in life was also explored within these groups for the way that it has previously been identified as a marker of trauma recovery. Elements of the trauma experience were found to be common, providing a language for relating to the experience of diverse groups. Other components of trauma however differed between groups, demonstrating the significant role of interpretation in not only understanding, but also creating the trauma experience.