The precarity of a volatile political environment, economic distress, unchecked genocide, and a global pandemic have pushed many Americans to the brink of late capitalist fatalism, dissociation, or gallows humor. In Rethinking Therapeutic Culture (2015), Timothy Aubry and Trysh Travis draw attention to our cultural “therapeutic orientation” that is so ubiquitous, we hardly notice it, as most Americans attempt to seek some kind of mental health support (1). Therapeutic culture perpetuates the mythos that self requires cultivation and improvement: “its economic, ethical, intellectual, and emotional possibilities are not predetermined by heredity or inherited social position” (5). George Bonanno of Columbia University’s Loss, Trauma, and Emotion Lab published The End of Trauma (2021), where he assures fellow Americans that they have been hoodwinked about trauma, its prevalence, and their ability to cope. Though some techniques discussed likely do help some readers, Bonanno himself admits that even the most obviously “useful” behaviors or traits cannot be universally beneficial (16). While the premise that an individual can “end” their trauma through mindfulness exercises and resilience sequences is, frankly, laughable, it is undeniable that there has been a pendulum shift in the approach to trauma, both in trauma studies research and in contemporary American culture. The trivialization with which Americans colloquially invoke the language of trauma has led to cultural burnout. Since everybody has endured some kind of trauma, talking about the experience is: 1) humdrum and pointless, 2) employed for shock value, 3) used to garner pity or feed ego. Instead of this seeming collective experience aiding in creating a meaningful community formation, Americans are over it. What the hell happened?

Though trauma memoirs do focus on the individual experiences of trauma, illness, and grief, their authors often do not stay fixated on those experiences, working through their trauma through the space of the memoir and, most importantly, in the creation of a community of family, friends, and readers. This development of community is central to healing and recovery from the traumatic experiences recounted within these memoirs, as Herman’s Truth and Repair (2023) reminds us, as even listening is a “radical act” that empowers people who have felt isolated, hopeless, or abandoned by society (4). Instead of approaching the self as a site of individual improvement and vessel for attaining fulfillment, as therapeutic culture engenders, perhaps we should foster communities that give opportunities to share and to listen.

This accepted panel invites discussions of memoir in prose, graphic, and visual forms, particularly those that center community construction, challenge therapeutic culture, or negotiate new conceptions of trauma and means of coping.  For general inquiries, please contact dfrenc12@kent.edu.  Finally, no remote presentations are permitted for this session per NeMLA guidelines, so please be ready to present in Rhode Island.  For all general guidelines and 2027 NeMLA Conference information see: https://www.nemla.org/convention/policies.html.

Please submit your paper proposals to:  https://cfplist.com/nemla/User/SubmitAbstract/22350.