Trauma & hysteria in fin de siècle European culture (Part 1)

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to analyse the reasons for the actualisation of the issues of trauma and hysteria in the European culture of the fin de siècle. The research methodology includes general scientific principles of systematisation and generalisation of the problem under study, which enabled identification and scientifically substantiation of existing theories and conceptual approaches to understanding the content of concepts of trauma, psychological trauma, hysteria, and mental illness. The application of the axiological approach helped to reveal the interdisciplinary nature of the considered theories, as well as to outline personalised cultural scientific positions. The use of the analytical method contributed to the identification of conceptual foundations for further scientific perspectives on the problematisation of trauma, psychological trauma, hysteria as mental illnesses in the context of cultural knowledge. The scientific novelty lies in the implementation of cultural reflection to clarify the socio-cultural determinants of the spread of hysteria and psychological trauma as mental illnesses. Conclusions. The article examines the issues related to the problematic field of contemporary trauma studies, and for this purpose, the interconnection of such phenomena as hysteria and trauma in the context of fin de siècle culture is highlighted. The specificity of the latter lies in its transitivity, which determines its "centaurism" (S. Krymskyi), and therefore it is described with the help of two mutually exclusive tropes. In the first case, it is pessimism, decline and decay, moral degeneration and degradation, doubts about the reliability of scientific knowledge, criticism of religious and scientific authorities, accompanied by a kind of "fall into archaism" and perceived as an idealisation of the past, a return to nature, to the traditions of pre-modern society. On the other hand, there is the expectation of a new era, optimism, and faith in progress, supported by the achievements of the Second Industrial Revolution and the yet-to-be-discovered abilities of the human mind to penetrate the depths of the unknown, including the human psyche. Such a cardinal contradiction, such an epochal cultural breakdown, has become a fertile ground for the spread of mental illnesses, including hysteria and psychological trauma.

Keywords: trauma, hysteria, problematisation of trauma & hysteria, mental illness, European culture, fin de siècle.