The social and political nervous system framework for understanding collective recovery after war or genocide

The Social and Political Nervous System (SPNS) is presented as a conceptual framework for understanding recovery after war and genocide. Contemporary trauma research has advanced knowledge of neurobiological and psychological responses to adversity; however, post-war realities also involve disruptions in relationships, institutions, systems of meaning, and political life. SPNS provides an integrative structure for examining these interconnected processes across biological, psychological, relational, institutional, and socio-political domains. The framework draws upon trauma neuroscience, systems thinking, relational approaches, and Indigenous ethical perspectives, including Ubuntu. Findings from trauma research demonstrate that prolonged exposure to threat affects affect regulation, trust, social engagement, and patterns of interpersonal functioning. In societies exposed to mass violence, these processes interact with historical, cultural, and institutional conditions, contributing to social fragmentation, distrust, polarization, silence, and difficulties in rebuilding collective life. SPNS conceptualizes these phenomena as dynamic patterns emerging through interactions across multiple levels of human experience. Grounded in long-term clinical practice and field engagement in post-conflict settings, SPNS offers a theoretical contribution to the study of collective trauma and post-war recovery. The framework expands current understandings of recovery by incorporating relational responsibility, acknowledgment, truth-telling, and institutional accountability alongside individual healing. SPNS supports interdisciplinary inquiry into the conditions that sustain social continuity and promote recovery following mass violence.