Trauma, Memory, and Play
In what kind of story do you relive your trauma?
The late George Carlin did a bit that illustrates how the meaning of words “creep” through the English language, as we invent new euphemisms intended to avoid stigmatizing, retraumatizing, or marginalizing people who have already been hurt.
Recording during the late 1980’s, Carlin was criticizing the use of euphemism because it minimized the needs of the wounded, disabled, and victimized. He goes so far as to say, “It’s getting so bad that any day now I expect to hear a rape victim referred to as an unwilling sperm recipient!”
He got a hearty laugh.
But Carlin was wrong. The trend he anticipated reversed. Now its much more popular to use the more severe term to refer to the less severe condition — a practice Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt call “concept creep” in their new book , The Coddling of the American Mind (Lukianoff & Haidt 2018).
According to The Coddling, words like “trauma” and “abuse” were once reserved for serious, physical, damage to your…
