TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2020//
TI  - Metaphors for trauma: a cross-cultural qualitative comparison in Brazil, India, Poland, and Switzerland
JO  - Journal of Traumatic Stress
A1  - Rechsteiner, Karin
A1  - Maercker, Andreas
A1  - Heim, Eva
A1  - Meili, Iara
SP  - ePub
EP  - ePub
VL  - ePub
IS  - ePub
N2  - The concept of psychological trauma implies that people experiencing traumatic stress are wounded, thus relating to the metaphor of a physical injury. Although this notion is widely accepted by clinicians and researchers in mental health, there is evidence of a broad range of metaphorical idioms for extremely aversive experiences or catastrophic events across different cultures. In this ethnopsychological study, we aimed to investigate and contrast culturally shared metaphors for trauma among four distinct cultural groups: two indigenous communities (Pitaguary from Brazil, Adivasis from India) and two rural communities (mountain villagers of Gondo, Switzerland; the Lemko ethnic minority in Poland). The communities in Brazil and in Poland were marked by historical trauma, and the communities in India and Switzerland each suffered from a natural disaster. Semistructured interviews that focused on metaphors shared within each community were conducted with key informants and laypersons (Brazil: n = 14, India: n = 28, Poland, n = 13, Switzerland: n = 9). We conducted separate metaphor analyses, then cross-culturally contrasted the findings from the four samples. Across the four cultural groups, we found similar metaphorical concepts of trauma related to bodily processes, such as "shock," "burden," and "wound." In addition, culture-specific metaphorical expressions were identified for each group. <br><br>RESULTS from this study suggest that although embodied metaphors share some universal characteristics, culture-specific expressions strongly reflect sociocultural and historical contexts, indicating potential approaches for the cultural adaptation of clinical interventions. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.<br><br>This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0894-9867
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jts.22533
ID  - ref1
ER  -