M6 Types & Effects of Trauma III: Grief, Community, War, & More

Feb 6

Overview

In M6 we turn to grief, community and war trauma. Grief is experienced by everyone and affects people in different ways. How we cope with grief can take many years and be affected by personal/community beliefs. While there are recognized stages of grief--these stages may over-simplify people's trauma. Moreover, we can experience grief from other types of loss such as losing one's job, home, relationship, etc.

Many of the factors that create personal trauma also contribute to trauma at the community level (and inter-general trauma). Community trauma is caused by violence, disasters, genocide, public health problems, and more. We explore types of community trauma and how treating community trauma can differ from helping individuals.

War trauma, though connected again to other types of trauma, is highly complex as war trauma can be extreme, long-lasting and affects the military and their families, civilians, aid workers, journalists, leaders and politicians, neighboring countries/areas and other stakeholders. War trauma can be manifested in the long-term (generational war, post-conflict landmines, and ruined economies, social systems and social structures) and interventions for treating war trauma can take many years, including through the international courts.

Like other 598 modules, M6 can be highly triggering. Please choose the materials that appeal to you and take your time.

Objectives

1. Learn about the nature of grief, how grief is experienced differently by individuals and cultures, and how a trauma-informed care approach can help people.

2. Learn about community trauma, its causes, connections to individual trauma, and how community trauma can be supported.

3. Learn about the types of war trauma and their effects on individuals, families, communities and countries, and how war trauma can be mitigated.

Readings

Grief

Avis, K. A., Stroebe, M., & Schut, H. (2021). Stages of grief portrayed on the internet: A systematic analysis and critical appraisal. Frontiers in psychology, 12, 772696.

Wojtkowiak, J., Lind, J., & Smid, G. E. (2021). Ritual in therapy for prolonged grief: a scoping review of ritual elements in evidence-informed grief interventions. Frontiers in psychiatry, 11, 623835.

Cacciatore, J., Thieleman, K., Fretts, R., & Jackson, L. B. (2021). What is good grief support? Exploring the actors and actions in social support after traumatic grief. PloS one, 16(5), e0252324.

Wagner, B., Hofmann, L., & Grafiadeli, R. (2021). The relationship between guilt, depression, prolonged grief, and posttraumatic stress symptoms after suicide bereavement. Journal of clinical psychology, 77(11), 2545-2558.

Klurfeld, Z. B., Buqo, T., Sanderson, W. C., & Ward-Ciesielski, E. F. (2020). Comparing the nature of grief and growth in bereaved, divorced, and unemployed individuals. Journal of Affective Disorders, 274, 1126-1133.

Neimeyer, R. A., Harris, D. L., Winokuer, H. R., Thornton, G. F., Christ, G. H., & Kissane, D. W. (2012). Grief and Bereavement in Contemporary Society Bridging Research and Practice (Ch on Grief in an Global Perspective; this is an ebook that can be read for free through UW Libraries, and all of the chapters are excellent). Taylor and Francis.

Community Trauma

Abdul-Adil, J., & Suárez, L. M. (2022). The Urban Youth Trauma Center: A Trauma-Informed Continuum for Addressing Community Violence Among Youth. Community Mental Health Journal, 58(2), 334–342.

Lee, J. Kim, S., & Kim ,J. (2020). The Impact of Community Disaster Trauma: A Focus on Emerging Research of PTSD and Other Mental Health Outcomes. Chonnam Med J. 2020 May;56(2):99-107.

Brown, M. E., Dustman, P. A., & Barthelemy, J. J. (2021). Twitter impact on a community trauma: An examination of who, what, and why it radiated. Journal of community psychology, 49(3), 838-853.

Opara, I., et al. (2020). “Bullets have no names”: A qualitative exploration of community trauma among Black and Latinx youth. Journal of child and family studies, 29, 2117-2129.

Weisner, L. (2020). Individual and community trauma: Individual experiences in collective environments. Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, Center For Violence Prevention & Intervention Research. (Reviews the literature on how trauma experienced at the individual-level is influenced by trauma experienced at the community-level. Community trauma directly impacts individual experiences and requires addressing community-level factors, including housing, education, and employment opportunities.)

War Trauma (includes military, civilian populations, and intergenerational)

Libraries, museums, archives, and monuments are often destroyed during war. Read here about such destruction in Gaza and in Iraq.

Owen, A. & Warburton, N. (2018). Ethics on the battlefield: The soldier in battle is confronted with agonising, even impossible, ethical decisions. Could studying philosophy help? AEON. (has a link to listen to the article)

Engdahl, Dikel, Eberly & Blank (1997). Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in a Community Sample of Former Prisoners of War: A Normative Response to Severe Trauma. Originally published in the American Journal of Psychiatry (1997, 154.11: 1576-81), the authors interviewed a community sample of former prisoners-of-war (N = 262; WWII & Korea) living in the U.S. The authors conclude that PTSD is a normative and persistent consequence of exposure to severe trauma.

Ford (1999). Disorders of Extreme Stress Following Warzone Military Trauma: Associated Features of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or Comorbid but Distinct Syndromes? Published in 1999 (J Consulting & Clinical Psychology, 67.1: 3-12), Ford, National Center for PTSD, discusses important differences and similarities between Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Disorders of Extreme Stress (DESNOS) diagnostic categories, drawing on a sample of 84 male military combat veterans seeking inpatient PTSD treatment.

Yayan, E. H., Düken, M. E., Özdemir, A. A., & Çelebioğlu, A. (2020). Mental Health Problems of Syrian Refugee Children: Post-Traumatic Stress, Depression and Anxiety. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 51, e27–e32.

DeAngelis, T. (2023, Dec 5). War’s enduring legacy: How does trauma haunt future generations? American Psychological Association.

Anderson, H. (2023). The BBC’s Fergal Keane: ‘The breakdowns get harder to recover from each time.’ The Guardian.

Abu-Fares, A., & Alshetawi, M. F. (2023). Tracing the Shadows of War in Sinan Antoon’s The Book of Collateral Damage: Trauma and Memory. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 13(11), 2881-2888. (excellent about the nature of war trauma as depicted in Antoon's book about the Iraq war)

media

Nora McInerny. We don't "move on" from grief. We move forward with it. TED. (2019, 15 mins)

Andrew Huber. The Science & Process of Healing from Grief. Huberman Lab Podcast #74. Stanford University (2023, 2 hours)

Policing, Mass Incarceration and Community Trauma. Stanford University. (2017, 65 mins. Excellent speakers)

Fergal Keane on addiction, PTSD and why he will never go back to the frontline (2023, 60 mins)

Sebastian Junger. Our lonely society makes it hard to come home from war. TedX (2016, 13 mins)

Zarlasht Halaimzai. What It's Like to be a War Refugee. TedX. (2022, 13 mins)

Margarita Alegria, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital. Trauma Informed Care with Refugee and Immigrant Youth (2019, 55 mins)

Discussions

M6 Grief

M6 Community Trauma and War Trauma

InfoLate #6 iHelp Outside

Assignments

A3 Types of Trauma (due Feb 20)