From Foreign Policy · Gregory Jones-Katz · · 3m
The Trauma Plot to Destroy America
Catherine Liu's book reveals how capitalism turns exploitation into private trauma stories, shifting blame to workers.
In brief
Catherine Liu's book reveals how capitalism turns exploitation into private trauma stories, shifting blame to workers. Catherine Liu argues capitalism commodifies exploitation as individual trauma, destroying collective political action. Originally reported by Foreign Policy.
The Trauma Plot
The trauma plot describes stories where a person’s behavior, identity, or relationships are understood through a formative past trauma.
“stories in which a person’s behavior, identity, or relationships are understood through the lens of a formative past trauma”
Cultural Dominance
Narratives of personal suffering appear in memoirs, novels, television, and film, from Tara Westover’s Educated to Manchester by the Sea.
“from memoirs (Tara Westover’s Educated) to novels (Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine) to television (True Detective) to film (Manchester by the Sea)”
Catherine Liu's Argument
Catherine Liu, professor of film and media studies at the University of California, Irvine, argues capitalism treats poverty, overwork, and insecurity as individual traumas to be overcome via self-help and therapy.
“by treating poverty, overwork, and insecurity as individual and private traumas to be overcome via self-help, therapy, and corporate wellness”
Political Consequences
Liu claims the trauma plot is a tool of social control that represses working-class politics and class analysis, destroying our responsibility to reason about shared material reality.
“the subjective and emotional trauma plot is not only a "tool of social control" that represses working-class politics and class analysis, it is a grand narrative that has destroyed our "responsibility to reason" about "an objectively shared material reality and history"”
Marxist Critique
Traumatized is a bold Marxist critique that deconstructs the ideological mystification of suffering to promote liberalism’s foreclosure of collective possibilities for health and healing.
“Liu deconstructs "the ideological mystification of suffering that trauma discourse and trauma studies provide in order to promote liberalism’s foreclosure of collective possibilities for health and healing"”
Child Welfare Chapter
Liu examines 19th century child welfare institutions that emerged from privately funded efforts to rescue children from family harm, promoting a liberal vision of childhood.
“In the first of Traumatized’s four chapters, Liu considers how Anglo-American child welfare institutions emerged out of "privately funded endeavors" during the 19th century to rescue children from harm within their own families”
Second-Wave Feminism
Liu analyzes how second-wave feminists from the 1960s to 1980s extended women’s equality struggles while using the trauma plot to obscure class analysis.
“For Liu, Judith Herman’s work in the 1980s and early 1990s set the standard script, which appeared at the end of the Cold War”
Psychiatry and Insurance
Post-1968 critiques of psychiatry intersected with insurance companies’ negative assessments of psychoanalysts, leading to the use of checklists like the PTSD checklist.
“In her third chapter, Liu investigates how post-1968 critiques of psychiatry, in part in response to Vietnam veterans, intersected with insurance companies’ negative assessments of psychoanalysts as "unscientific, authoritarian, and reactionary types"”
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey’s revelation of childhood abuse led Americans to internalize her message about individual will, ignoring structural inequalities of the Reagan era.
“By watching when Winfrey revealed that she had been abused as a child, Americans did not simply witness "trauma and recovery in action"”
Trauma Culture
A liberal trauma culture emerged in the 1980s and ’90s, where historical traumas are understood through individual suffering rather than structural analysis.
“Another important result of this trauma narrative was the ending of housing and treatment of the mentally ill in large state-run institutions”
Winfrey’s Impact
Winfrey’s influence led to the 1993 Child Protection Act and the normalization of smartphones and chatbots as confessional booths and soulmates.
“That President Bill Clinton signed the Winfrey-endorsed 1993 Child Protection Act confirms the star’s influence”
Class Weapon
Liu argues the trauma plot has become a class weapon that obscures structural inequalities and shifts responsibility onto workers.
“the trauma plot’s sidelining of the "injuries of class" and "the slow violence and high psychological cost of being exploited in an economic system designed to de-skill workers, degrade craft, and generate profits" has done its damage”
Critics' Perspectives
Critics suggest Liu’s analysis could benefit from a wider historical lens and consideration of white grievance discourses.
“Traumatized could have benefitted in spots from a wider historical lens”
Global Impact
Recent tech regulations in France and Australia could upend U.S. surveillance capitalism by blunting the trauma script’s class weapon.
“a recent wave, led by France and Australia, of strict new tech regulations across the globe that include youth social media bans, algorithmic transparency, and work-life digital boundaries”
Political Figures
Liu identifies JD Vance, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Kamala Harris as using the trauma plot to extract power and prestige.
“Liu sees the trauma plot’s hegemonic power as undiminished in JD Vance, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Kamala Harris”
The Solution
To counter the trauma plot, we must resist privatizing feelings and suffering, recovering plans for collective welfare and flourishing.
“We can still be the authors of our shared story, from its beginning to its middle and its end”
The bottom line
Catherine Liu argues capitalism commodifies exploitation as individual trauma, destroying collective political action.
