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Trauma Industrial Complex
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  • Published: 14 August 2025
  • ISBN: 9781473566828
  • Imprint: Ebury Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 320

Trauma Industrial Complex

How Oversharing Became a Product in a Digital World

Formats & editions
Hardback
25 Nov 2025
EBook
14 Aug 2025
Audiobook
14 Aug 2025
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An eye-opening critique of the trauma industry from Orwell Prize-winning author Darren McGarvey, revealing the unexpected consequences of sharing his story and outlining the need for systemic change.

*The new book from the Orwell Prize-Winning author of Poverty Safari and The Social Distance Between Us*

Today, trauma 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 and sometimes harmful guidance about how to deal with personal trauma.

In Trauma Industrial Complex, I ask the question: How did we get here? And are the stories we’re telling ourselves liberating us or keeping us trapped? In this revealing and deeply personal book, I’ll pull back the curtain, sharing the hard-won wisdom I’ve gained from the events brought on by telling my own story.

Praise for Darren McGarvey:

‘An Orwell for today's poor’ – The Times
‘The standout, authentic voice of a generation’ – Herald
‘McGarvey is a rarity: a working-class writer who has fought to make the middle-class world hear what he has to say’ – Nick Cohen, Guardian
  • Published: 14 August 2025
  • ISBN: 9781473566828
  • Imprint: Ebury Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 320
Categories:

About the author

Darren McGarvey

Darren McGarvey, aka LOKI, grew up in Pollok. He is a writer, performer, community activist and columnist, and former rapper-in-residence at Police Scotland’s Violence Reduction Unit. He was part of the Poverty Truth Commission that was hosted in Glasgow in 2009 and has presented eight programmes for BBC Scotland exploring the root causes of anti-social behaviour and social deprivation. His bestselling and acclaimed first book Poverty Safari was awarded the Orwell Prize.

DM

Also by Darren McGarvey

The Social Distance Between Us
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Praise for Trauma Industrial Complex

An absolutely fascinating individual

Owen Jones

An at times brutally exposing account… McGarvey shows a maturity that belies many writers on similar topics; Trauma Industrial Complex therefore succeeds as far more than memoir.

The Scotsman

An Orwell for today's poor

The Times

Brilliant and thought provoking.

Nicola Sturgeon

Darren writes powerfully and poignantly about the unanticipated impact of becoming a poster boy for Scotland's social ills.

Observer

He’s a good person to write this book… uncompromising in his message.

Spectator

If it is taken seriously, it should have consequences… truly courageous, sincere and difficult.

The Herald

McGarvey is a rarity: a working-class writer who has fought to make the middle-class world hear what he has to say

Nick Cohen, Guardian

Offer[s] an antidote to populist anger that transcends left and right... articulate and emotional

Financial Times

The quality of McGarvey's reporting and storytelling is first-rate

John Harris, Observer

The standout, authentic voice of a generation

Herald

Utterly compelling

Ian Rankin, New Statesman