Psychology Today | 02.09.2026 04:12
Since the time last week that my adolescent nephew used the term “trauma” in a phone conversation to describe something that happened to him at Washington Square Park, i haven't been able to stop reflecting on how fully clinical language is being embedded in the vernacular among developing youth. While the psychologist (and doting aunt) in me had my antenna up when he used the term, I was also relieved to hear that while what he was describing that happened at the park was distressing for him, it was not, in fact, a description of a traumatic event.
