Natural, Man-Made Disasters and Trauma: Foundation for The Conceptualization of Dislocations and Ruptures

Trauma and disasters are important causes of human suffering both in terms of the sheer numbers of people affected and the complexity of the mental health problems that may follow. Of the total number of global injury-related deaths, about two-thirds are of ‘non intentional‘ origin (e.g. traffic accidents) while one-third are due to intentional violence, including suicides, homicides and organized violence. Both the frequency and the numbers of people affected by violence and disasters have increased markedly over the last 100 years, while the proportion of people surviving has also risen. As the density of human habitation and the intensity of technological development have increased, so too has the scale of disasters. Climate change, economic disparities and political conflicts all can be expected to compound the number and complexity of disasters in the years to come. Social psychiatry has a long engagement with understanding the individual and collective impacts of trauma and disasters. Much of this interest has been driven by experiences of the impact of war on soldiers and civilian populations. The Holocaust and other genocides have forced consideration of the effects of massive human rights violations on the survivors as well as on subsequent generations.