Transnational trauma: Taiwanese psychiatry and the construction of 'psychological trauma', 1945-1995 (360G-Wellcome-092091_Z_10_Z)

This project aims to investigate into the historical transformation of psychiatric knowledge with reference to a psychological subject, trauma, which was transformed by a number of individuals and institutions in cross-cultural contexts. From shell-shock to PTSD, the conceptualization of trauma has undergone a 'paradigm shift' in the course of 20th Century history. However, it was primarily considered within military and Anglo-American model. In the course of history, trauma has acquired different names and features under various social and cultural circumstances. In a non-western setting, trauma developed a completely different picture from what it initially meant in western psychiatry. The fields I target are Taiwan National University psychiatric department, which contributed the main inputs in the activities of psychiatric development at the international level, and the early projects developed by the World Health Organization Mental Health Section (later renamed as Unit), World Federation for Mental Health, and other post-war health organizations.