The Psychological Effects Of War

This book addresses the impact of war and extreme stress on civilian populations, as well as psychology's response to these phenomena. Contributors examined and developed interventions in locations including Africa, the Balkans, Afghanistan, Siberia, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.

This volume describes a variety of public mental health and psychosocial programs in conflict and post-conflict situations in Africa and Asia. Each chapter details the psychosocial and mental health aspects of specific conflicts and examines them within their sociopolitical and historical contexts. This volume will be of great interest to psychologists, social workers, anthropologists, historians, human rights experts, and psychiatrists working or interested in the field of psychotrauma.

The Oklahoma City bombing, intentional crashing of airliners on September 11, 2001, and anthrax attacks in the fall of 2001 have made Americans acutely aware of the impacts of terrorism. These events and continued threats of terrorism have raised questions about the impact on the psychological health of the nation and how well the public health infrastructure is able to meet the psychological needs that will likely result. Preparing for the Psychological Consequences of Terrorism highlights some of the critical issues in responding to the psychological needs that result from terrorism and provides possible options for intervention. The committee offers an example for a public health strategy that may serve as a base from which plans to prevent and respond to the psychological consequences of a variety of terrorism events can be formulated. The report includes recommendations for the training and education of service providers, ensuring appropriate guidelines for the protection of service providers, and developing public health surveillance for preevent, event, and postevent factors related to psychological consequences.

This transnational, interdisciplinary study of traumatic neurosis moves beyond the existing histories of medical theory, welfare, and symptomatology. The essays explore the personal traumas of soldiers and civilians in the wake of the First World War; they also discuss how memory and representations of trauma are transmitted between patients, doctors and families across generations. The book argues that so far the traumatic effects of the war have been substantially underestimated. Trauma was shaped by gender, politics, and personality. To uncover the varied forms of trauma ignored by medical and political authorities, this volume draws on diverse sources, such as family archives and narratives by children of traumatized men, documents from film and photography, memoirs by soldiers and civilians. This innovative study challenges us to re-examine our approach to the complex psychological effects of the First World War.

The outgrowth of a conference planned as a response to the need for researchers and clinicians to develop integrated plans for addressing the psychological trauma of children exposed to violence, this volume's goals are: * to summarize research on the subject with particular emphasis on the Gulf War; * to use this information to formulate an outline of what current knowledge suggests are reasonable approaches to public mental health intervention; and * to develop an agenda for future research necessary for improving clinical efforts in varying international conflicts. A significant collection of diverse perspectives attending to a diversity of cultural and political contexts, the contributors offer many conclusions about important dimensions for analyzing the effects of violence on children. Suggesting informed approaches to public mental health efforts which can be implemented, the work presented here directs attention to the need for interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers and clinicians to better understand the effects of exposure to violence on the psychological well being of children and the optimal modes of remediation on individual, family, and community levels.

In the years following World War II the health and well-being of the nation was of primary concern to the British government. The essays in this collection examine the relationship between health and stress in post-war Britain through a series of carefully connected case studies.

Finding meaning in trauma work, as a traumatized healer yourself. The act of caregiving is physically exhausting and emotionally draining, yet caregivers describe it as rewarding and gratifying. Prolonged exposure to human suffering, however, is not without risks?caregivers report high rates of burnout and poor quality of life. Many care providers believe that their feelings do not matter; that they should ignore their pain, brush off their trauma, wipe away their tears, and just “suck it up.” Here, Omar Reda a Libyan-born American psychiatrist who, as an emergency physician and trauma counselor provided care for medical staff caring for victims of trauma, calls upon other healers to break free from cycles of secrecy, toxic stress, and silent suffering so they can continue to empower and inspire those in their care. Filled with poignant first-person stories and clinical case studies, this book is an impassioned plea for psychosocial trauma care that prioritizes the health of both client and healer.

Looks at the effect of deadly battle on the body and mind and offers new research findings to help prevent lasting adverse effects.

Uniquely using historical material and military records as well as personal interviews and clinical diagnoses, Surviving Vietnam focuses on veterans' war-zone experiences and the development in some of PTSD. It addresses controversies regarding reported rates of PTSD and the importance of exposure to traumatic events compared with pre-war personal vulnerability.

Preventing War and Promoting Peace focuses on how health professionals can actively engage in the prevention of war and the promotion of peace.