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Trauma: Complexity and Disruption

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Person Centered Psychiatry

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Abstract

Wars, natural disasters, economic disasters, and major accidents are all traumatic or disruptive events in life. To face them, a broad and integrative perspective and suitable conceptualizations about the complexity of psychic reactions are needed. Disasters can be a paradigmatic example of complexity. To deal with them it is important to promote the highest level of health based on person-centered care. Generally in medicine we use a standard classification when we treat patients. A negative aspect of it, particularly in mental health, is the risk of reductionism and the process of victimization. This must be changed by taking into account the specificities of each individual and the particular characteristics of a certain event. We consider that concepts, such as “traumatic situations,” “victims,” and “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)” are sometimes used in an unclear way, producing confusion in clinical practice. To avoid confusion and especially victimization of the subject perhaps, the term “disruption” could be used instead of “traumatic situation.” Also, we should perhaps refer to affected people as “injured people” instead of “victims.” Referring to a traumatic event as “disruptive situation” is a way to avoid victimization. Clinical care should consider the specificities of each individual and the characteristics of each event, in order to offer an appropriate diagnosis, assistance, and treatment.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Professor of Psychiatry, El Salvador Univ, Av. Del Libertador 4944, 9B, 1426, Capital Federal, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Moty Benyakar MD, PhD & Carlos Collazo MD

  2. President, Iberoamerican Ecobioethics Network for Education Science and Technology, Unesco Chair in Bioethics, Paris, France

    Moty Benyakar MD, PhD

  3. Honorary Member, World Psychiatric Association, Geneva, Switzerland

    Moty Benyakar MD, PhD & George N. Christodoulou MD, PhD

  4. Honorary Chair, WPA Section on Disaster Psychiatry, Geneva, Switzerland

    Moty Benyakar MD, PhD & Carlos Collazo MD

  5. International Fellow, American Psychiatric Association, Arlington County, VA, USA

    Carlos Collazo MD

  6. Professor of Psychiatry, University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    George N. Christodoulou MD, PhD

  7. President, World Federation for Mental Health, Baltimore, ML, USA

    George N. Christodoulou MD, PhD

  8. Honorary President, Hellenic Psychiatric Association, Athens, Greece

    George N. Christodoulou MD, PhD

Authors
  1. Moty Benyakar MD, PhD
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  2. Carlos Collazo MD
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  3. George N. Christodoulou MD, PhD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Moty Benyakar MD, PhD .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Psychiatry, New York University Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA

    Juan E. Mezzich

  2. Laboratory Ethics, Professionalism, University of Western Brittany, Bohars, France

    Michel Botbol

  3. Dept. of Psychiatry, University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    George N. Christodoulou

  4. Department of Psychiatry, WASHINGTON UNIV SCH MED Department of Psychiatry, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA

    C. Robert Cloninger

  5. Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Coral Gables, Florida, USA

    Ihsan M. Salloum

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Benyakar, M., Collazo, C., Christodoulou, G.N. (2016). Trauma: Complexity and Disruption. In: Mezzich, J., Botbol, M., Christodoulou, G., Cloninger, C., Salloum, I. (eds) Person Centered Psychiatry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39724-5_30

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39724-5_30

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-39722-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-39724-5

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