Bridging the black hole of trauma: the evolutionary significance of the arts

Abstract

One word for the Devil is ‘Diabolos’, the divider, the splitter‐into‐fragments. Healing likewise has always been associated with integration, integrity and becoming whole. From ncient times to the present, artistic performance in all its variety has been connected to healing of self and community and yet a recurrent question arises, ‘What are the arts for?’. A less than concrete answer to this question appears to justify reducing or eliminating funding to arts‐related programs whenever financial crisis occurs. This paper explores the evolutionary significance of trauma, dissociation, and the human brain and raises the possibility that the evolutionary selection of artistic performance is as a primary integrating mechanism for traumatized individuals and groups, without which human beings may not be able to fully heal.