Definition: Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing (P.T.S.S.) is a 2005 book by Joy DeGruy which describes a set of historical and transgenerational behaviors, beliefs and actions associated with or, related to multi-generational trauma experienced by African Americans that may be inclusive of but not limited to undiagnosed and untreated Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (P.T.S.D.) in enslaved Africans. PTSS is an explanatory theory which posits that centuries of slavery in the United States, followed by systemic and structural racism and oppression, have resulted in multigenerational maladaptive behaviors, which originated as survival strategies. The syndrome continues because children whose parents suffer from PTSS will often be indoctrinated into the same behaviors, long after the behaviors have lost their contextual effectiveness. The author states that PTSS is not a “disorder” that can simply be treated and remedied clinically but rather must necessarily require a profound social and structural change in Americans and American institutions that continue to promote inequalities and injustice.
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Writing about PTSS is one thing, going through it is quite another.
While we should all be very happy that someone at least took the time out to define PTSS as a DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)) and to give us a verbal picture of what it is and looks like, as it relates to PTSD, Ms DeGruy is correct on all points except one: … but rather must necessarily require a profound social and structural change in Americans and American institutions that continue to promote inequalities and injustice.”
The profound social and structural change in American institutions has about as much of a chance of happening as an Inland Taipan has of not being capable of emitting venom when it bites. If that is the case, America, Black Americans, that is, who are waiting on that “profound social and structural change” to take place any time soon can forget about ever being remedied of PTSS. In the meantime — yeah, we know … look on the bright side, the power of positive thinking, this too shall pass, woof, woof, tweet tweet. Got it. Thanks.
Now that were back from that ‘commercial break’, let’s face some facts about the symptoms of P.T.S.S. and its application to Black people in this current society:
1. Living through dangerous events and trauma.
2. Having a history of mental illness.
3. Getting hurt.
4. Seeing people hurt or killed.
5. Feeling horror, helplessness, or extreme fear.
6. Having little to no support systems in place after the event.
7. Dealing with extra stress, such as loss of a loved one, pain or injury, or loss of a job or home (then being told you’re imagining the whole thing).
8. Flashbacks…reliving the trauma over and over again, which can result in physical symptoms like a racing heart or sweating.
9. Nightmares, bad dreams.
10. Frightening thoughts.*
*Victims and Perpetrators: In 1996, the FBI received reports of 10,706 hate crimes from State and local law enforcement agencies, involving 11,039 victims, and 10,021 known perpetrators. The crimes included 12 murders, 10 forcible rapes, 1,444 aggravated assaults, 1,762 simple assaults, and 4,130 acts of intimidation. Among the known perpetrators, 66 percent were white, and 20 percent were black. Some perpetrators commit hate crimes with their peers as a “thrill” or while under the influence of drugs or alcohol; some as a reaction against a perceived threat or to preserve their “turf’; and some who out of resentment over the growing economic power of a particular racial or ethnic group engage in scapegoating.
‘Working-On-It’ Solutions
Just like a drug addict or an alcoholic spends a lifetime “in recovery” from something that likely an ongoing struggle to stay clean or keep their heads above water, a Black American who is suffering from PTSS can use some of the same techniques as other victims of these crimes and traumatizing events.
(a) Talk Therapy in a singular or group setting that can help with teaching about it and coping mechanisms; mental health counselors, or “Life Coaches” can help with this type of therapy.
(b) Exposure Therapy in a “safe” setting where that which is believed harmful,p or a ‘triggering event’, can be experienced in a way that presents no actual real-time dangers.
(c) Cognitive Restructuring to help make sense of bad memories by helping to view them in a way that makes acceptance healthy and not more self-destructive.
(d) Stress Inoculation to help with coping skills in the activities of daily living (ADLs) in order to lessen the possibility of a relapse.
(e) Finding support systems away from the stressful “triggers” that can set off an episode of overtly harmful behavior to self or others.
In the long run, the best thing Black people can do to help one another deal with PTSS is to stop being in denial about it; to stop pretending that it doesn’t exist, or that we are just making it all up.
Gone should be the idea that we can just “get over it” and keep it moving.
The denial and refusal to deal with it openly and forthrightly has long-term consequences on our personal lives and on our social order and well-being. Most of those consequences that we have seen in the past, we will continue to see if nothing is done to address and remedy the historic and generational problems.
It doesn’t simply “go away.”
If someone had dealt with this when it first began to surface shortly after the antebellum slaves were freed in the mid-1800s, just imagine where Black America could have progressed to by now.
References
Iraq: Where Hated Black People in America are Sent by Whites to Kill Other Hated Black People in Their Own Homeland
GAZA: When, in history, did Palestinians ever travel to Europe to Conquer and Occupy the Homelands of the so-called “Jews”?
New Age Cult Leader “channels” Lemurian Warrior to Conquer People She Hates
Former Washington Post News Reporter is Latest “undocumented immigrant”
Dumb Mom Turns Her 14-Year Old Daughter over to Rapists They “Met” Online
Black Wall Street “Reparationsless”
White Hostility in Corporate America
The Disconnect that Came Through Integration
Mothers Send Children to Canada to Avoid Racism
McDonald’s Fires Negligent Mom
Backwash from Integration: Black Children Are Better off Home-schooled
EMS Ignored Eric Garner As He Died from Being Choked to Death by NYPD for No Reason
Chicago Girl Gunned Down During Sleepover
Reality TV Ruining Minds of Young Black Women
Attacks on Black Women Foretold in Biblical Prophecy?
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