Psychological sciences shape how societies respond to extreme events

Senior researcher Johannes Lang receives a “Young Researcher Fellowship” of DKK 3,5 million for his project “Wars, Pandemics, and the Human Mind: Competing Conceptions of Trauma in the 21st Century,” which will explore the science and politics of trauma in the decades since September 11, 2001.

The project will produce insights into how trauma is understood and governed today, as well as critical reflections on how the psychological sciences shape the way societies perceive and try to manage the human effects of extreme events.

The project is divided into three case studies. Case study 1 looks at how ideas about “resilience” and “moral injury” have reshaped the American mental health establishment’s thinking on trauma since 9/11. The case study focuses on the scientific debates and politics surrounding these concepts in both military and civilian contexts. Case study 2 explores how the concepts are being taken up by humanitarian organizations working in the field of conflicts and catastrophes. Case study 3 looks at how notions of resilience and moral injury affect the way specialists and policymakers perceive the psychological effects of traumatic events in civilian healthcare in the front-line response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Carlberg Foundation’s “Young Researcher Fellowships” are “three-year grants for outstanding newly appointed associate professors [or senior researchers] with international experience.”