Oh, right. I interpreted it as saying that horrific events are only traumatic when you’re from a culture where they’re rare, not that repeated traumatic events somehow lower one’s levels of PTSD. That would be nonsense, obviously.
Right. One idea I had is that what causes PTSD is not so much the traumatic experience as being surrounded by people who can’t relate to it.
A more Hansonian version is that exhibiting PTSD is a strategy to gain attention and sympathy and that this strategy won’t work if everyone around has also suffered similar experiences.
Another possibility is that in cultures where traumatic events are common, people who can’t deal with them without suffering PTSD are likely to get killed off by the next one.
From what I’ve read, repeated trauma is a good way of predicting PTSD, so lack of familiarity with trauma wouldn’t be a good explanation.
Oh, right. I interpreted it as saying that horrific events are only traumatic when you’re from a culture where they’re rare, not that repeated traumatic events somehow lower one’s levels of PTSD. That would be nonsense, obviously.
Right. One idea I had is that what causes PTSD is not so much the traumatic experience as being surrounded by people who can’t relate to it.
A more Hansonian version is that exhibiting PTSD is a strategy to gain attention and sympathy and that this strategy won’t work if everyone around has also suffered similar experiences.
Another possibility is that in cultures where traumatic events are common, people who can’t deal with them without suffering PTSD are likely to get killed off by the next one.