Kintsugi-Inspired Design: Communicatively Reconstructing Identities Online After Trauma

2025-03-22

AI Summary

This study investigates how trauma survivors reconstruct fragmented self-identity through online communities. Drawing on 30 in-depth interviews, we employed thematic analysis and grounded theory to develop the first socio-technical process model of post-traumatic identity reconstruction. We introduce the novel concept of “fragmented identity” and adopt kintsugi—the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold—as a theoretical metaphor, emphasizing the visibility and non-linear integration of trauma traces. Our analysis identifies four core reconstructive practices—witnessing, naming, connecting, and restorying—and three integrative pathways: narrative integration, relational integration, and technology-mediated integration. Together, these constitute a reusable, empirically grounded process model for identity reconstruction. The findings provide a theoretically rigorous yet practically actionable framework for designing trauma-informed digital platforms that ethically support identity recovery.

Technology Category

• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction
• Data Mining & Knowledge Management: Representing, Reasoning, and Using Provenance, Trust

Application Category

• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics for personalization
• Responsible Web: Social and technical mechanisms of refusal for web technologies and applications
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Trust and reliance of crowd workers and data experts on GenAI

Abstract

Trauma can disrupt one's sense of self and mental well-being, leading survivors to reconstruct their identities in online communities. Drawing from 30 in-depth interviews, we present a sociotechnical process model that illustrates the mechanisms of online identity reconstruction and the pathways to integration. We introduce the concept of fractured identities, reflecting the enduring impact of trauma on one's self-concept.

Problem

• How trauma disrupts self-identity and mental well-being
• Mechanisms of online identity reconstruction post-trauma
• Concept of fractured identities from trauma impact

Innovation

• Kintsugi-inspired design for identity reconstruction
• Sociotechnical process model from interviews
• Concept of fractured identities post-trauma