The Psychological Impact of War Trauma on Civilians An International Perspective

Subjects:

• Psychology » Environmental Psychology
• Military Studies » Military Psychology

Reviews:

• This volume is a contribution to the developing literature on the impact of war and extreme stress on civilian populations. Harrowing stories of survival are all faithfully retold within the context of colonization, racism, culture, and the occupation in which they took place. The question as to how to give appropriate clinical attention to these civilians is addressed in four parts. The case studies and assessment section casts a wide net over the opportunities for healing at both individual and communal levels. The section addresses not only the negative impacts of war on individuals, such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress, but it also investigates the legacy of warfare on a community level....[t]he work is extraordinary. I find myself extremely grateful for the research that has been conducted in this field which is so neglected, yet so sorely in need of attention.
  —The AHP Perspective Magazine June/July 2006

• Endorsement From Marc Pilisuk, Former President
  Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict and Violence
  American Psychological Association: Something has happened, within the lifetime of those born after the 1920s, regarding the human capacity to kill large numbers of people, to disrupt entire communities through organized acts of violence, and to wage war against civilians. We have left major portions of the world's populations scarred by these events, barely able to understand our collective inhumanity and sometimes frozen in our ability to respond. Healing is a profound and difficult undertaking. The approaches are as varied as the circumstances under which the victims described in this book were devastated, but the compassion and reflection in each chapter is remarkable. Krippner and McIntyre's book covers the range of most of the effective procedures used to treat the traumas of war. With healing comes the hope that the future need not repeat the horrors of the past. This collection is essential reading for those who would hope to understand how we can reweave humanity from the ravages of contemporary conflict.
• Endorsement From Stanley L. Brodsky, Ph.D.
  Professor, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa: This book offers remarkable insights into the emotional experiences of people traumatized by war. Not only are a great range of survivors and disrupted cultures reported and analyzed, but the contributors take the necessary step, and offer a conceptual and practical framework for prevention and treatment. No other book comes close to such depth and breadth of understanding of the refugees, the civilians, the families, the women, and the children whose lives have been torn by terrorism and war.
• Endorsement From Lawrence LeShan, Ph.D.
  Author, The Psychology of War: No social scientist can afford to ignore this book because it is a guide for our role in the 21st century. This book not only illustrates many aspects of the problem, but ways in which we can provide assistance in these times of distress. This book is a door to the emerging maturity of the social sciences, providing a practical vision of what we may and can become. As such, it deserves a place in the library of every psychologist, psychiatrist, sociologist, anthropologist, and especially those who are therapists and caregivers.

Table of Contents:

• Foreword: Moving the Borders of Psychology to the Aid of Victims of War by Steven E. Hobfoll
• Overview: In the Wake of War by Stanley Krippner and Teresa Mendonça McIntyre
• Case Studies and Assessment
• Introduction
• The Women of Afghanistan and the Freedom of Thought by Adam Fish and Rona Popal
• Healing the Impact of Colonization, Genocide, and Racism on Indigenous Populations by Betty Bastian, et al.
• Children of War: Psychosocial Sequelae of War Trauma in Angloan Adolescents by Teresa Mendonça McIntyre and Margarida Ventura
• War on the Internal Self: Memory, Human Rights, and the Unification of Germany by Benina B. Gould
• Assessing Depression Among Rwanda Survivors by Paul Bolton
• Infectious Disease, HIV/AIDS, and War: Impact on Civilian Psychological Health by George M. Carter
• An Asian Youth as Offender: The Legacy of the Khmer Rouge by Clay Foreman
• Intervention and Reconstruction
• Introduction
• War and Refugee Suffering by Daryl Paulson
• Self-Therapy Through Personal Writings: A Study of Holocaust Victims' Diaries and Memoirs by Sandrine Arons
• Post-Traumatic Nightmares in Kuwait Following the Iraqi Invasion by Deirdre Barrett and Jaafar Behbehani
• Psychosocial Effects and Treatment of Mass Trauma Due to Socio-Political Events: The Argentine Experience by Lucila Edelman, et al.
• Cultural Art Therapy in the Treatment of War Trauma in Children and Youth: Projects in the Former Yugoslavia by Árpád Baráth
• Social Sources of Life: Rehabilitation in the Former Yugoslavia by Vesna Ognjenovic, Bojana Skorc, and Jovan Savic
• Healing, Social Integration, and Community Mobilization for War-Affected Children: A View from Angola by Michael Wessells and Carlinda Monteiro
• Somato-Psychotherapy at the Medical Foundation in London by Michael Korzinski
• Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome and Related Disorders Among Civilian Victims of Sexual Trauma and Exploitation in Southeast Asia by Glenn Graves
• Prevention
• Introduction
• Toward a Graduate Curriculum in War Trauma Relief and Ethnopolitical Conflict Resolution by Ron Fisher
• Before and After Trauma: The Difference Between Prevention and Reconciliation Activities in Macedonia by Sally Broughton
• Change Agentry in an Islamic Context by Leila F. Dane
• Peacebuilding by Women in Lebanon by Mary Bentley Abu-Saba
• Legacies of Fear: Religious Representation and Resilience in Siberia by Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer
• Integrative Summaries
• When Society is the Victim: The Catastrophic Trauma Recovery Project by Steve Olween
• Poisoned Dissociative Containers: Dissociative Defenses in Female Victims of War Rape by James D. Pappas
• Challenges and Opportunities for Southeast Asian Refugee Adolescents by Roben Marvit
• Why War? Fear Is the Mother of Violence by Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, and Tom Pyszczynski
• Afterword by Jeanne Achterberg
• Poem: "How Can This Be?" by John Cannon and Harrison Childers
• Index