Synopses & Reviews
In an interview granted years before September 11, 2001, Osama bin Laden has stated that he considers both soldiers and civilians of the enemy legitimate targets. That position is not unique, and the wars of the past century have proven with increasing numbers of civilian casualties. 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. Subjects include: women under the Taliban, AIDS patients faced with governmental denial, survivors of the Rwanda massacres, post-Pol Pot Cambodia, Nazi Holocaust victims, Kuwaitis after the Iraqi invasion, Argentine mothers of disappeared youth, and more.
The authors examine such rehabilitation efforts as art therapy and role-playing in the former Yugoslavia, community mobilization in Angola, body-work for torture victims who have found their way to London, and counseling for former child prostitutes now in Vietnamese schools. Preventative measures include classes in ethnopolitical conflict resolution, reconciliation and peace-building activities, and the revival of indigenous practices after decades of repression.
Review
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
Review
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.Marc Pilisuk, Former President Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict and Violence American Psychological Association
Review
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.Lawrence LeShan, Ph.D. Author, The Psychology of War
Synopsis
This book addresses the impact of war and extreme stress on civilian populations, as well as psychology's response to these phenomena.
About the Author
STANLEY KRIPPNER is Alan W. Watts Professor of Psychology at Saybrook Graduate School, San Francisco.TERESA M. MCINTYRE is Professor of Health Psychology at the University of Minho, Lago do Paco, Braga, Portugal.
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 Mendonca 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 Mendonca 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 Arpad Barath
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