Traumatized: The New Politics of Public Suffering -- Catherine Liu, Hardcover
How trauma became a weapon in the culture wars, by the acclaimed author of Virtue Hoarders What happens when an idea born of genuine suffering is weaponized as a tool of social control? Traumatized is the story of how shell shock became PTSD, how Oprah turned pain into profit, and how "authenticity" became the ultimate brand. It is a history of surveillance capitalism's greatest coup: convincing us that wounds define us and that accommodating each other's trauma is more important than challenging the powerful. Catherine Liu delivers an unflinching diagnosis of our current crisis, rooted as it is in the collapse of liberal politics, the ascendance of performance fragility, and the rise of emotional display as a surrogate for political action. Sharp, provocative, and urgently necessary, Traumatized argues that we must reject a politics of permanent victimhood since it destroys solidarity and leaves us defenseless against the systems that cause real harm.
Author: Catherine Liu
Publisher: Verso
Published: 9/29/2026
Pages: 192
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.65 lbs
Size: 8.4" H x 5.5" L x 0.8" W
ISBN: 9781804296745
