Why The Distinction Between Ontic and Ontological Trauma Matters For Existential Therapists
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65828/y4rqp611Keywords:
Trauma, ontological truth, Angst, everydayness, special sensitivity (Hellhörigkeit), meaning, pure facticityAbstract
This paper is an elaborated version of my presentation at the round-table about 'Trauma, Uncertainty and Crisis' at the First World Congress of Existential Therapy in London in May 2015. Its main purpose is to introduce a distinction between two different types of trauma which is overlooked even by authors who rely on existential philosophy for their concept of trauma. I had the idea that there must be more than just one type of trauma because I came to understand my neurotic patients as traumatized too, albeit not in the usual sense. Therefore I plead for differentiating between two types of trauma. I term the usual type of trauma 'ontic', respectively 'existentiell', the other type 'ontological', respectively 'existential'.1
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