Relational Woundscapes: Dialogical Systemic Praxis at the Intersection of Trauma, Postmemory, and Moral Injury

Abstract

I have spent a considerable part of my life reflecting on my history and on what it means to come from Dersim, a geographical and political space that was made to disappear by 1936 through its absorption into the borders of neighbouring counties, municipalities, and townships (Keiser, 2011; Deniz, 2020). The story and history of Dersim, and its endurance in our collective consciousness, have shaped both my sense of belonging and my intellectual preoccupations. In seeking to understand my own experiences and those of my community, and the incongruence between our embodied experiences, our stories, and our recorded history, I turned to the concepts of intergenerational and transgenerational psychological trauma (Çelik, 2015). Given the scale of destruction and devastation experienced by Dersimis (people who identify as being from Dersim), I took the concept of trauma on board to describe the collective pain and suffering, which led my work to trace how trauma eventually became an essence. I deconstructed it as something remembered, silenced, and transmitted across generations, shaping the emotional, relational, and political lives of Dersimli people.