CULTURAL AND ECONOMIC DIVERSITY FORUM

By Nydia Garcia Preto

When asked to convene the Forum this year, I felt honored and thankful to Mathew Mock, the present Chair of the Economic and Diversity Committee. There is such rich history attached to this Forum. It is symbolic of AFTA's transformation, and probably the reason why I have made a commitment to the Academy. I remember going to the annual meeting in Philadelphia, in 1993, and attending this Forum. Jaime Inclan and Iris Cornelius Butler were heading some of the discussion, and I felt very excited and hopeful about the commitment the organization was making to issues of social justice, and to increasing the cultural and economic diversity in the organization. My last meeting had been in New York, and I had felt so marginalized that I didn't return for years. The Forum is about social justice, a reminder that the families we treat, write about, teach trainees to work with, study, and write about live in a society that is diverse, where racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, and white privilege are present and central in people's lives. It is a privilege to have a place where we can dialogue about how these factors affect our lives, and influence our work.

This year, Mathew Mock opened discussion by leading us into an experiential exercise. The group, about 60 people, divided into dyads and took turns to answer two questions. What have our reactions been in situations where we have been treated unjustly? and How have we reacted to situations where we have witnessed another person being treated unjustly? The exercise provided an opportunity for people to meet someone new, and be witness to another person's experience of injustice while sharing our own. Brief but profound, this was a particularly powerful way to lead into Maria Root's presentation: Insidious Trauma and the Politics of "Us" and "Them" Dichotomization.

Following that morning's very challenging and somewhat controversial Plenary, Terror and Trauma: Enhancing Family and Community Resilience, Dr. Root's presentation provided a deeper, more layered view of trauma, taking into account issues of race, gender, class, immigration, and culture. In her understated, clear, and personal way, she began by describing different types of trauma. For instance, there is Direct Trauma that is usually recognized, such as maliciously perpetrated violence, war experiences, industrial accidents, natural disasters, and there is less easily recognized Direct Trauma, such as life threatening/debilitating illness, destruction of cultural communities, and genocide. She also spoke of Indirect Trauma, for example, the effect on us when our significant others sustain serious trauma, or when we witness the physical evidence of trauma, and hear reports of violence.

Another type of trauma is Insidious Trauma, which sometimes may be even more difficult to identify because the symptoms are often characterized as part of a person's personality, or as characteristic of a family or community. This type of trauma usually leads to interpersonal worth being devalued. For example, women who have been in long term abusive relationships, or cultural groups that have been ostracized or whose human rights have been violated often have this experience. Insidious trauma may also be transgenerational, such as the ongoing exposure to the residuals of slavery that African Americans experience on a daily basis, or the effect that years of anti-Semitism has had on Jews, or the lasting effect of the taking of land, culture, and lives by the White, European Colonists has had on the first inhabitants of this country, or the ongoing prejudice that many immigrant groups face daily. The effect of Insidious Trauma is also felt by individuals with progressive declining health, and by their caretakers.

Much discussion ensued as these types of trauma were considered. Dr. Root gave many examples of her work at the courts in Washington and Oregon, where she is hired as an expert witness by lawyers to assess the traumatic effects of such experiences as sexual harassment, sexual and physical abuse, and gender and racial discrimination. Participants gave other examples, questions were asked, stories were told, and implications for treatment were discussed. There seemed to be consensus in the group that the experience and effects of trauma are different depending on whether the events are characterized as malicious or accidental, and whether they happen in isolation or in the company of others. When a traumatic experience, such as the events of September 11, has been shared with others, there is more opportunity for talking with others and feeling validated. Yet, as we have all seen, underlying prejudices and societal inequities can quickly lead to the dichotomization of groups into "Us" and "Them."

As the end of the forum grew closer, Dr. Root expanded on the dimensions of the traumatic experience. She spoke about physical and interpersonal trauma caused by stimulus deprivation, or by pain and injuries that may be temporary or permanent, and by starvation. She then focused on psychological and spiritual dimensions of trauma, such as: confrontations with mortality, the loss of a significant other, the perception of malicious intent, isolation, helplessness and loss of control, being a witness or participant to death or destruction, the crushing/denigration of spirit, physical dislocation, spiritual dislocation and abandonment. As she said, the information she presented was not new and ground breaking, but the way in which she organized the material gave us a broad and comprehensive view of trauma.

For many of us, listening to her presentation validated experiences of trauma to which we are exposed on a daily basis, particularly forms of insidious trauma. It was also a reminder that there is much to learn from those who have been exposed to trauma for generations and have found ways to move forward, to live, to feel hopeful. Keeping our spirits alive by staying connected to family, friends, and community seems to be the most important antidote to the effects of trauma, especially when coping with feelings of hopelessness and abandonment. Throughout the presentation, a message that kept playing, and one that we must play over and over in our minds and hearts, was that the line between "Us" and "Them" is very fine and that at any moment we might find ourselves on the other side.

Nydia Garcia Preto is Clinical Director at the Multicultural Family Institute of New Jersey in Highland Park, New Jersey, where she is also part of the faculty in the Family Training Program, and has a private practice.