Is everyone traumatized? Perspectives from an Indonesian convent

Abstract

What if we took trauma to be a fundamental aspect of human existence? Prominent in some strands of popular psychology, this is also the stance taken by an eastern Indonesian order of Catholic nuns who “dig up” their hearts as part of a continual process of self-formation. Set against a backdrop of Christian theologies of discernment, state concerns for human development, and local resonances of ritual sacrifice, nuns learn to interpret their childhoods as harmed by emotional trauma sustained in the company of kin. Once excavated, this trauma must be addressed in the convent through conscious efforts of mutual care, making trauma a moral category that creates new forms of subjectivity. Through acts of acknowledgment and support, the idiom of trauma makes the company surrounding a nun directly responsible for her self-formation. This article is about the ways Indonesian Catholic nuns conceptualize trauma as something that all humans sustain, how it grounds self-becoming, and how its causes—and cures—are rooted in the company of other people. I suggest that their experiences highlight the sociality of trauma more broadly and argue that trauma is one articulation of how people become themselves in the company of others.