A psychoanalytic exploration of collective trauma among Indigenous Australians and a suggestion for intervention

Psychoanalysis is used to explore the effects of the annihilation of culture and how this leads to a loss of identification with a collective subjectivity and triggers catastrophic symptoms including loss of collective hope, the rise of addictive and self-destructive behaviours, and the intergenerational transmission of trauma among Indigenous Australian communities.

I propose restorative educational interventions for young Indigenous children that seek to engage them with ancestral memory, cultural narratives, and a sense of purpose so that healing from historically transmitted trauma may be initiated and a grounded sense of subjectivity restored.