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The Anatomy of a Trigger
The Anatomy of a Trigger
History
Issue
43Pagination
11 - 19Publisher
The Lifted BrowLocation
MelbournePlace of publication
Melbourne, Vic.ISSN
1835-5668Language
engResearch statement
Contemporary awareness and use of ‘content warnings’ and ‘trigger warnings’ pertaining to PTSD and sensitivity to reading or viewing material has increased. What is not covered by these categories are the more classically analysed ‘triggers’ or ‘afflictions’ (causes for suffering) outlined in wisdom texts such as the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (Aranya 1983: 5) and referred to as the Kleshas. Creative nonfiction, mobilising autobiographical incident, combined with abstract universals and concrete particulars, can test possible interventions on habitual thinking around mental health, and its possible causes. It also is a critique of wellness approaches that focus on ‘getting things to feel better’, rather than on ‘how to prevent causing suffering to others’. This essay offers an accessible conceptual framing for understanding ‘mundane’ triggers that lead to reactive behaviour in people outside of the typically addressed issues of PTSD. Raising questions of personal responsibility, the possibility of ethical responding & histories of how to intervene on problematic reactivities that cause suffering to ourselves and others (namely practising, and definitions thereof), this creative nonfiction piece paints a picture of the program that constitutes our ‘afflictions’ borrowing and making contemporary certain logics from the wisdom texts of Patanjali & elsewhere. The essay moves the discourse on triggerings away from a specialised group of people & wellness as ‘my next asset’, onto our shared perpetuating of certain compulsive respondings which our notion of self does not accommodate & often therefore doesn’t acknowledge or take responsibility for. It uses humour, sternness and cultural critique to raise awareness of this question and its likely scenarios. Twitter responses to it included: ‘Thank you for writing just about the most amazing piece of anything I’ve read in years...’ @poetry_says) Aranya, S.H. 1983 Yoga Philosophy of Patanjali, Albany: SUNY Press.Publication classification
JO3 Original Creative Works – Textual WorkScale
NTRO MinorUsage metrics
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