Trauma narratives are the defining feature of late modernity. Confessional renderings of stories of violation are so ubiquitous that they seem to be a universal constant, regardless of historical time or geographical place. Sexual assault has become the pre-eminent example of an experience that is framed in terms of trauma. In public discourse, rape "survivors" hold a special place in defining an extreme point of psychological distress. Historically, however, this has not always been the case.

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... ndeed, psychological trauma arising from sexual assault is a relatively new way to frame the aftermath of attack. As I will argue in this article, "bad events" other than rape were more liable to be narrated in terms of psychological trauma. Why was rape-trauma introduced relatively late into discussions of trauma in Britain and the USA, and what was the impact of the invention of the diagnosis "rape trauma syndrome"? RESUMEN: El trauma no constituye una forma universal de expresión de los efectos de un "suceso desagradable" sino que es construido socialmente. En el caso de la violación, el trauma psicológico es una forma relativamente reciente de conceptualizar las consecuencias de la agresión. En este artículo se examina el desarrollo de la noción de trauma en manuales psiquiátricos, legales y forenses, a propósito de las víctimas de violación, y se investigan las razones para su relativamente reciente puesta en práctica. ABSTRACT: Trauma is not a universal way of speaking about the effects of "bad events" but is socially constructed. In the case of rape, psychological trauma is a relatively recent way of conceptualising the aftermath of violence. This article examines the development within psychiatric, legal, and forensic textbooks of the notion of "trauma" in reference to rape victims, and investigates the reasons for its relatively recent application.