Substitutive trauma: preparing grounds for the Russian attack on Ukraine.

Abstract

This article introduces a new concept, that of "substitutive trauma," which refers to the utilisation of unprocessed collective traumatic experiences by political leadership to create shared feelings of victimhood and vengeful at-titudes within a population, protecting them onto new target/object. The analysis explores how a substitutive trauma-based psycho-po-litical dynamic culminated in February 2022 in Russia's war against Ukraine. The article argues that the community of traumatic stress professionals, studying and understanding macro-societal processes can contribute to reducing and ameliorating such destructive psycho-political developments.