Colloquium: On Models and Metaphors in Traumatic Stress Research

The Center for the History of Emotions at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, led by Prof. Ute Frevert, cordially invites all interested to attend its summer semester 2019 colloquium:

Andreas Maercker, Universität Zürich

On Models and Metaphors in Traumatic Stress Research

Maercker starts by outlining the psychological models of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that correspond with the development of the existing evidence-based psychotherapies for this disorder. Further, he will present the socio-interpersonal model of PTSD, which he expands to include cultural components. Two studies with different methodologies will be reported, one of which is a quantitative international comparative study of “fatalism”, a facet of basic cultural beliefs that is important for help seeking after traumatization. In addition, Maercker reports on four local studies from three continents that used ethnographic methods to collect culturally shared metaphors that express the subjective experiences of traumatized people, in place of the common metaphor of the “trauma” (wound). In general, his interest is to achieve an epistemologically empirically guided pluralization of models of trauma-related syndromes – and in terms of therapy, to make therapeutic approaches more flexible.

Andreas Maercker, PhD, MD, completed his MD at Humboldt University and his PhD at Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. After academic positions in Dresden and Trier, he was appointed in 2005 as full professor of Psychopathology and Clinical Intervention at the University of Zurich. He is co-director of the Institute’s outpatient clinic services. Professor Maercker is or has been principal and co-investigator in numerous national and international studies in traumatic stress research, clinical geropsychology, and internet-assisted mental health and has published more than 200 peer review articles. From 2011-2018 he chaired a work group at WHO for revising the International Classification of Diseases in the area of trauma- and stress-related disorders. He has authored or edited 14 scientific and therapeutic books. Keywords characterizing his expertise: PTSD, stress-response syndromes, lifespan developmental psychopathology, treatment, e-mental health.