Through the excerpts we have read this term, William James and Sigmund Freud’s equally interesting views on  consciousness and trauma seem to complement each other when explaining the connections between the two as well as demystifying to some degree how people can seem to be repeating their past traumas or experiencing bad luck. James, thankfully, clearly defines and outlines consciousness in a way that can be applicable to Freuds views on trauma,  and furthermore, Freud gives a reasonable if somewhat depressing explanation of why trauma reoccurs in the form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and shell shock.

Without the help of James’ four main concepts of consciousness it would have been very difficult for me to understand Freuds work. The key points to his concepts were that everyone has what he describes as their own ‘state’ which encompasses their own personal thoughts and is unique to them. This ‘state’ is also constantly changing as our minds wander and we are in constant motion. As such, for James, consciousness is both an integrated and unique to ones person while being continuous and  constantly changing. his use of the phrasing stream of consciousness is therefore purposeful as a chain could be missing a link but a stream is continuous.

This understanding of James played a vital role in my interpretation of Freud. When describing trauma, his base argument which I would like to highlight is the idea that rather than remembering things we act them out, and thus end up repeating them. This ‘memory’ is therefore re-repeated not as memory but as an action and as such the person repeating it can be unaware of its significance as a ‘memory’. This concept is what connects to the idea of PTSD and Shell shock as well as the feeling someone might have of them simply being unlucky or even ‘cursed’.  One of the more mundane examples Freud gives is the unwanted repetition someone who is experiencing which they might refer to as a cycle of bad luck, that in spite of themselves every relationship, friendship and  job  seems to end the same way, as though they are victims or fate. His argument stating that their repetitions are negative compulsions and as such they are doomed to repeat it eloquently connects to our sociological discussion on how humans are merely victims of the system which they are produced from and as such truly have no freedom or choice.

Although this realization Freud comes to is eye-opening as well as somewhat disheartening, for me it raises sociological questions related to free will. Is it possible for someone to realize what it is that they are constantly repeating and even if they were able to, could they change it? Furthermore, would changing or correcting for their repetition truly make a difference or, like free will, is it pointless. Freuds example Traumatic neurosis caused by The Great War as well as from train crashes further relate to what is now known as PTSD. If we were to view a persons traumatic experience, for example a horrific train crash as being the cause for someones PTSD, and if as it is commonly known, PTSD has not cure, although there are tools to improve quality of life, does that furthermore mean that there is no escape from those unpleasant memories and the different ways in which they manifest?