The world of today is not particularly concerned of antiquated ideas like angels or demons. From the contemporary point of view, anything that does not retain an objective existence which can be proved by methods of science are simply dismissed as the whims of human imagination. Such a frame of reference has always struck me as sensible because it grounds individuals on a plane of existence which, they know for a fact, to be true. However, I have also been exposed to a plethora of modern ideas, one of which is the notion of trauma.
Being a student of psychology, I have spent quite some time trying to understand the various ways trauma confines and hinders the will of an individual. Psychological literature records an array of illnesses ranging from anxiety disorders to OCD where the mind of a person is in constant battle with certain thoughts and ideas originating from within. Notwithstanding the fact that such illnesses merit proper treatment, I couldn't help but noticing that there was often a tendency to associate the illness with the person itself.
I believe the cardinal difference between tragedy and trauma is that eventhough both of those words represent external occurings, in the former the individual is still separate from the tragedy. Although he might might not able to control the circumstances around him, he is still in full possession of his inner faculties whereas with the latter, suffering becomes internalized and dictates his course of action. Trauma, therefore through a process of internalization, becomes a part of the person itself.
In light of these reflections, I understood that these modern notions as much as they shed clarity in certain respects also raise some fundamental questions. And that these seemingly antiquated ideas, like the devil, also served a unique purpose. Initially, I used to abhor this prevalent convention of blaming all the evils of the world on the devil because it clearly absolved the person of moral responsibility. Simply projecting all your decadence and wickedness to a mythical figure seemed deterimental at the outset because it might most often serve as an excuse to remain oblivious to the consequences of your own actions.
However if the devil is the origin of all wrongdoing, the will of the person is also in a certain way protected,. As much as such externalization might lead a person to assume they are not responsible for their own actions, it also ensures that any immorality is not intertwined with a person because the source of all evil is external. The individual is armed with a mechanism that allows him to choose his way, regardless of his past. Perhaps modern psychology still has much to learn from such ideas that are often dismissed under the pretext of being naive superstition.