PSU Magazine Fall 2004

African Americans may still be experiencing the effects of slavery. By Joy DeGruy Leary A merican slavery ended more than a century and a half ago. While the physical manifestations of slavery are for the most pan buried, l believe the psychological damage has been passed through the generations and still exists today. To date, there have been few studies conducted LO assess the impact of the traumas associated with the slavery of Africans or the generations that followed them. Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome (PTSS) Lakes into account multigenerational trauma. Many stud– ies of African Americans have focused on environmental conditions of poverty and crime as predictors of future problems. Only a small number of studies have focused on their social problems resulting from sustained psy– chological multigenerational trauma. Thus, there is a need to answer ques– tions regarding how contemporary societal stressors along with historical trauma relate LO current problems. Answers to these questions may help Lo determine the factors that relate to and influence non-productive behavior of some African Americans and more importantly, those factors that serve to protect against such behaviors. I developed the theory of Post Trau– matic Slave Syndrome after studying Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a disorder that has generated profound interest. Many psychological journals, articles, and books have been written with elaborate details of the symptoms, causes, and treatment of this disorder. lndividuals and groups said to suffer from PTSD include victims of rape, war veterans, holocaust survivors and their children, victims of incest, heart attack victims, natural disaster sur– vivors, victims of severe accidents, and others. However, absent from this list are the African American slaves and their offspring. The absence of any