The Roots of Trauma: Colonial Modernity and the Logic of Separation
Trauma is often framed as an individual experience, a disruption in someone’s mental or physical well-being caused by a specific event. While this view captures part of the picture, it leaves out the broader systemic and historical forces that shape how trauma is created and sustained. To fully understand trauma, we must look at its roots—deeply entwined with colonial modernity and the logic of separation.
Colonial modernity is more than just a historical period; it is a worldview that has shaped the way we understand ourselves, others, and the world around us. It is built on the idea of separation—humans from nature, mind from body, and colonizer from colonized. This logic of separation has not only justified centuries of violence and exploitation but has also created the conditions for trauma to thrive on a global scale.
Colonial Modernity: A System of Disconnection
At its core, colonial modernity is a system of control and extraction. It views the world as a collection of resources—land, people, labor, and knowledge—to be dominated and used. This perspective fundamentally disrupts relationships. It severs humans from the land by framing nature as a commodity. It severs communities by enforcing hierarchies of race, gender, and class. And it severs individuals from themselves by imposing ideals of productivity, rationality, and perfection.
This separation is not just a historical artifact—it persists today. Many of the systems that perpetuate trauma, from capitalism to systemic racism, are direct descendants of colonial modernity. The trauma experienced by marginalized communities is not just a response to individual events but a reflection of ongoing structural violence rooted in these systems.
The Logic of Separation and Its Impact
The logic of separation tells us that we are isolated individuals, responsible for our own success or failure. It fragments our understanding of trauma, framing it as an individual problem rather than a relational or systemic issue. This view prevents us from addressing the true sources of harm: the disconnections created by colonial modernity.
For example, the trauma of land dispossession among Indigenous peoples is not just about losing physical space; it is about the severing of relationships with land, ancestors, and cultural practices. Similarly, intergenerational trauma in Black communities cannot be understood without recognizing the historical and systemic violence of enslavement and structural racism.
Reconnecting Through Relationality
To address the roots of trauma, we must challenge the logic of separation and embrace a relational worldview. Relationality teaches us that everything—people, ecosystems, histories—is interconnected. It reframes trauma not as an individual pathology but as a rupture in relationality. Healing, therefore, is not just about personal recovery; it is about restoring relationships and dismantling the systems that perpetuate harm.
This perspective asks us to reimagine how we engage with trauma. Instead of isolating ourselves or blaming individuals for their pain, we can focus on rebuilding connections—to ourselves, to our communities, and to the land. By rejecting the logic of separation, we can begin to unmake the systems that create trauma and imagine new ways of being.
An Invitation
What if healing meant more than personal recovery? What if it meant repairing the relationships that sustain life—relationships disrupted by colonial modernity and the logic of separation? How might we change our understanding of trauma if we saw it not as an individual wound, but as a collective call to reconnect?
The roots of trauma run deep, but so do the possibilities for healing. Together, we can challenge the systems of separation, embrace relational ways of being, and co-create a world where trauma is no longer a cycle but an opportunity for transformation. Let’s begin this journey—together.
