Trauma Industrial Complex

How Oversharing Became a Product in a Digital World

De: Darren McGarvey

Brought to you by Penguin.

Today, trauma is everywhere, and it seems like everybody has it. Trauma shapes public debates on education, criminal justice and healthcare. It’s cited as a root cause of addiction, mental health issues, and relationship breakdowns. It permeates media, from music and television to films and books – my own included.

While the increasing openness is welcome, I’ve observed that this rise has been accompanied by a parallel explosion of disinformation. We now have a poorly regulated marketplace – powered by social media's financial incentives – filled with confusing and sometimes harmful guidance about how to deal with personal trauma.

Every day, trauma-related content drives billions of views online. Across the Western world, millions are adopting narratives of their own fragility based on ideas they’ve acquired from under-informed content creators.

As trauma is rapidly commodified, I’ve seen our stories of lived experience become largely dislocated from their original social and political value: to defend the vulnerable and leverage for social change. Now, trauma stories are less about spotlighting injustice, and more about monetising self-help for affluent people.

How did we get here? Are the stories we are telling ourselves liberating us or keeping us trapped?

In this revealing and deeply personal book, I’ll pull back the curtain on the trauma industrial complex, tipping the sacred cows of lived experience and sharing the hard-won wisdom I’ve gained from the calamitous events brought on by telling my own story.

© Darren McGarvey 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025