By Nebe, Galphina O.
The word Trauma comes from the Latin Word “Trauma,” which means “wound.” The plural form “Traumata” means wounds in general. Trauma is a severe physical injury to the body caused by an external force of violence. It is a psychological shock having a lasting effect on mental life. The second operative word War is a conflict carried out by force of arms between nations or between parties within a nation. A foremost theorist of modern war, Carl Von Clausewitz, claims that war is an extension of politics by other means, the contest of political will of one group versus that of another. This is certainly the assumption made by those people who prepare, support and engage in war for governments. But Clausewitz is myopic and limited in his view. In kind and character the activity of war, like any other social activity, “expresses cultural beliefs and values shared by a group, only one subset of which produces organized, politicized wars, much less conflict of the clausewitzian sort, the large state wars mobilizing large number of large causes” (2).