Sixteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

Post-colonial Stress Disorder (PCSD) is a diagnosis applied to Native American and aboriginal peoples, specifying the trauma in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as Colonialism. While some of the symptoms resemble PTSD pathology—alcoholism, aggression, depression—the more disturbing aspect of PCSD is its “inheritability.” As a pathology, the responses to colonialism as trauma is transferred via nurture from generation to generation. Although most of the literature on PCSD focuses on the individual or minority community, this condition offers an interesting diagnostic tool when applied to a nation—its government, culture, and people—especially formerly colonized nation states. It is a diagnosis that allows one to make linkages in pathological behaviors across a wide spectrum of cultures. It is the similarity in inefficient governance between Nigeria and Trinidad and Tobago or the ethnic divide in Guyana and Rwanda or the fragmentation of the Caribbean region and the splintering of India into India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Using literary texts and recent history as examples, this paper examines the symptoms of PCSD as a national diagnosis (PSCD Type N), and how to apply PSCD Type N to former colonized states. As with psychology practitioners who recommend culturally sensitive treatments for sufferers of PCSD, diagnosing a nation-state with PCSD type N opens also compels us to reinvest in native (if not indigenous) cultural practices as treatment for the pathology, prompting a new appreciation and focus on culture and creative industries.