[The sovereignty of the visible: how traumatic memory becomes traumatic stress]

Since the release of the third version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III), biological psychiatry has been systematically applying its classification reasoning to social phenomena of many natures. From this perspective, the discourse of trauma gained relevance and events of devastating magnitude began to receive neurobehavioral interpretations until finally being recognized less for their cultural and subjective effects than for the physiological changes they cause. By a narrative review, this study aims to analyze the transition of traumatic rationality from the 19th century, when trauma was associated with the cognitive concept of memory, to the 20th century, when this phenomenon was finally attached to neuroscientific research on stress. The plurality of conceptual models and deterministic paradigms can contribute to the fact that trauma research produces multifactorial coping protocols more appropriate to the human experience of post-traumatic suffering.