THE CONSTRUCT OF MORAL TRAUMA AND ITS CONCEPTUAL CONTENT

Abstract

Purpose is to explore the concept of moral trauma, as well as to carry out a comparative analysis withrelevant concepts of collective trauma, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and traumatic stress.Methods. The study applies theoretical analysis of the literature and systematization of recent studiesaligned with the concept of moral trauma, including of methods of analysis, synthesis, and generalization.Results. A review of the literature identifies key approaches to the interpretation of moral trauma concept inthe context of military trauma research and research in the terms of morality and moral experiences.Conclusions. The main concept definitions, key characteristics, common and distinct conceptual featuresof the moral trauma, traumatic stress, PTSD and collective trauma concepts have been analyzed. The studyreveals that moral trauma is often aligned with individual and collective context, while PTSD is always connectedwith individual trauma. Collective trauma often relates to historic trauma, trauma of identity and cultural trauma.The key difference of moral trauma in comparison with PTSD, collective trauma md and continuous traumaticstress is aligned with negative moral emotions, particularly feelings of guilt, shame, disgust, fear and anxiety. The traumatic stress concept covers physiological and psychological reactions of the body arising fromsecurity breaches and threats feelings, while moral trauma refers to damage of moral conscience and humanvalues caused by subjective perception and experience in the individual backgrounds of the situation as traumatic.The results of theoretical analysis also indicate that moral trauma should be studied in the wider contextof morality, namely moral standards, moral judgements, moral behaviour and moral emotions. Prospects forfurther research are the construct of moral trauma study in the context of the Psychology of Genocide asa collective and historical trauma, developing methodological basis for empirical research of moral trauma asa consequence of genocide.