Trivialization, or minimization, is making something smaller than it is. For example, a parent who tells a child that they should stop acting like a dying swan when the child is trying to talk about something important. A boss who ignores structural issues in an organization by pretending it’s a question of individual cases. A police officer who notes domestic abuse as a marital spat because the woman involved is from a culture that is known to be overly dramatic.
A culture that doesn’t want to own up to its own slavery history may deny that things like generational trauma exist, or pretend that just because a lot of time has passed, it is no longer justified, even if no actual steps have been taken to address the issues. Being told your emotions are not valid, because the other party doesn’t want to deal with them. Experts in their field who cannot handle exceptions that prove the rule, pretending that the criticism of their methodology is not reasonable or proven.
Often times, like with scapegoating, the person in question does so out of a defense mechanism to avoid taking responsibility, avoid conflict, or avoid facing uncomfortable truths, often about themselves.
This can be traumatic to the person whose feelings or experiences are being trivialized.
This article will be updated with further research and sources soon.
Sources
DEVELOPING THE COVERT TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCE SCALE (COTES): A RETROSPECTIVE EARLY PSYCHOSOCIAL TRAUMA ASSESSMENT TOOL
Tiffany E. Vastardis PhD, LMHC, CCTP, CMHIMP
Clinical Education Specialist • Florida Residential Clinical Training Liaison • Mental Health Researcher • Licensed Psychotherapist • Clinical Trauma Specialist • Integrative Medicine Practitioner
Minimization
Though a deficiency in representation within the body of Counseling and mental
health research exists, the experience of minimization, especially in regard to concerns
and emotions, can be considered a form of psychosocial trauma. Mert et al. (2016)
uncovered a link between diminished cognitive ability and such forms of minimization in young females. Furthermore, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ; Bernstein & Fink, 1998) includes questions devoted to the experience of minimization, as it is conceptualized as a form of emotional neglect and/or an act of omission.
