Trauma simultaneously marks dehumanization and demonstrates the humanity of its sufferers

Evidence

‘Trauma’, write Didier Fassin and Richard Rechtman, ‘is both the product of an experience of inhumanity and the proof of the humanity of those who have endured it.’ — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 1222

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines trauma as a double-edged category: evidence of inhumanity and proof of enduring humanity.
• SEED: This dual definition could anchor an essay on how victimhood claims function as moral capital in political discourse — trauma as a scarce, competitive resource.
• XREF: connects to: Dehumanizing the victim precedes atrocity through ‘pathic projection’ of the perpetrator’s own image — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflections from…, 119