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11 - Traumatic death in terrorism and disasters

from Part IV - Special topics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2009

By
Robert J. Ursano ,
James E. McCarroll  and
Carol S. Fullerton
Edited by
Robert J. Ursano ,
Carol S. Fullerton ,
Lars Weisaeth  and
Beverley Raphael
Robert J. Ursano
Affiliation:
Professor and Chairman Department of Psychiatry
James E. McCarroll
Affiliation:
Research Professor Department of Psychiatry
Carol S. Fullerton
Affiliation:
Research Professor Department of Psychiatry
Robert J. Ursano
Affiliation:
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Maryland
Carol S. Fullerton
Affiliation:
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Maryland
Lars Weisaeth
Affiliation:
Universitetet i Oslo
Beverley Raphael
Affiliation:
University of Western Sydney
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Summary

Terrorism and disasters are not infrequent occurrences in the present-day world. Common to these events is the likelihood of violent death and the presence of human remains – burned, dismembered, mutilated, or relatively intact. Exposure to mass death as well as individual dead bodies is a disturbing and sometimes frightening event. The handling of the remains of the dead following combat, natural disasters, disasters of human origin, and terrorism, accidents, and other forms of traumatic death is known to cause distress. The nature of the stress of exposure to traumatic death and the dead and its relationship to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other post-traumatic psychiatric illnesses is not well understood (Breslau & Davis, 1987; Lindy et al., 1987; Rundell et al., 1989; Ursano, 1987; Ursano & McCarroll, 1990).

The tasks of body recovery, identification, transport, and burial may require prolonged as well as acute contact with mass death. Recent research has shown that victims, onlookers, and rescue workers are traumatized by the experience or expectation of confronting death in disaster situations (Dyregrov et al., 1996; Jones, 1985; Miles et al., 1984; Schwartz, 1984; Taylor & Frazer, 1982). Exposure to abusive violence (Laufer et al., 1984) and to the grotesque (Green et al., 1989) significantly contributes to the development of psychiatric symptoms in war veterans, particularly intrusive imagery (Clohessy & Ehlers, 1999; Laufer et al., 1985; Lifton, 1973).

Keywords

close supervisionemotional involvementexposure to deathidiosyncratic reactionspsychological stresssensory stimulationman-made disastersnatural disastersterrorismtraumatic death
Type
Chapter
Information
Textbook of Disaster Psychiatry , pp. 227 - 246
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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