The multiple traumas of Hurricane Katrina as witnessed by a psychoanalytic first responder

Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society - Tập 18 - Trang 153-166 - 2013
Laurel Bass Wagner1
1Department of Psychiatry, Division of Psychology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Dallas, USA

Tóm tắt

The most disadvantaged New Orleans residents were stranded in the city when the levees broke in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The author, a psychoanalytic clinician, encountered some of these victims as a first responder in the Red Cross shelters in Dallas, TX. Psychological first aid in such situations involves shoring up defenses and promoting resilience. Clinical and organizational vignettes demonstrate a psychoanalytic approach to psychological first aid and disaster response. Three trauma theories (Bowlby's attachment theory, Hobfoll's conservation of resources theory and Strozier's “ground zero” theory) are used to understand the trauma experienced by those in Dallas shelters.

Tài liệu tham khảo

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