Friday, 15 May 2015

Interviewing for Education and Social Science Research: The Gateway Approach,
Carolyn Lunsford Mears, Palgrave/Macmillan, 2009, page 3-4

Mears reports that:

After a traumatic event, those affected tend to surround themselves with a protective bounday, what psychologists term a trauma membrane, in order to avoid further violation.

This both separates those who have experienced a trauma from those who have not and provides a support mechanism for those inside.

Recongition of a "membrane" of separation is particularly apt when studying communities affected by a disaser or traumatic event, yet the boundary of experience and understanding is a useful metaphor to keep in mind when investigating other situations as well, whether of traumatic origin or more mundane.

This seems particularly appropriate for the Jewish Yeshua-believing community, whose attitudes and behavious often shows the affects of long-term trauma and emotional stress.

Even without the emotional and psychological consequences of exposure to trauma, a separation exists between those who have lived an experience and those who have not.