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It
is not an uncommon phenomenon to experience
lingering emotional distress following a catastrophe,
long after the trauma has occurred.
The process of dealing with
and/or overcoming the trauma relies on the passage
of time. However, a universal reaction experienced
by the survivor or the victim is to avoid and/or
deny the shock and the hurt, and suppress it
in the subconscious.
In recent years, there has
been a growing trend to seek professional help
to resolve traumatic stress and the panorama
of emotions it sets off, such as anger, guilt,
shame and fright.
One of the goals of treatment
in traumatic stress following a tragic event
is to assist the survivor or the person who
witnessed the adverse event to release the negative
emotions that intensified the person's defense
mechanisms. Another goal is to reconstruct the
"girders" of the personality that
were shaken by the sudden and unexpected event
and to assimilate the meaning of the loss. The
need to preserve the old information prior to
the adverse event while confronting the pressing
reality of new information brought by the tragedy
intensifies the various defense mechanisms.
Thus, defenses such as disassociation, denial,
avoidance and numbing of responsiveness, which
are not uncommon, can become the result of the
traumatic state. Most survivors of a tragedy
who lose a loved one tend to feel compelled
to return to a daily routine without being able
to deal effectively with the adverse emotions
which emanated from the disaster: emotions that
are in the form of suppressed anger, helplessness,
sadness, guilt, etc.
The assassination of Prime
Minister Rabin created in most Israelis an emotional
earthquake with aftershocks of various degrees.
It caused a trauma that cannot be digested even
now, nearly two years after the tragedy.
There are two primary reasons
for the difficulty in resolving the traumas
and/or the helplessness associated with the
trauma.
1. In the short term, only
a short time has passed since the tragedy. It
is a traumatic stress emanating from the brutal
murder of the most important political figure
in Israel, the Prime Minister. The close
proximity to the state of shock
and the enormous loss of a national leader prevents
the public from
working though a mourning process
which would lead toward a constructive way of
dealing with the traumatic stress and particularly
the unexpected void left by the loss of the
leader.
2. In the long term, the loss
is a national loss and a Jewish loss and it
has a bearing on the thought process of a nation
as well as its cultural values in Israel and
among the Jewish people abroad, thus adding
to the complexity and difficulty of resolving
it.
A recent national survey taken
in Israel indicates that the assassination of
Prime Minister Rabin continues to trouble the
majority of the Israeli people deeply and to
raise profound questions about the meaning and
strength of the nation.
The people of Israel would
like to forget, but they experience hardship
in going through the mourning process. The people
rush to return to their daily routines and struggle
to heal emotionally. They are not able to organize
therapeutic tools in order to soften or ease
the shock. They force on themselves a dramatic
return to life, instead of dealing with the
trauma. Any active therapeutic involvement is
avoided and the suppressed feelings of sadness,
anger, helplessness and guilt continue to linger
silently.
It is possible to undertake
a collective therapeutic healing for the public
through the media, in coordination with the
various municipalities throughout the country.
Even a national collective therapeutic process
need not overlook the individual’s unique response
to traumatic stress relating to such a loss.
The trauma apparently doesn't allow individual
citizens to take constructive steps that would
result in any treatment. Instead they are preoccupied
with responding to their intense defense mechanisms.
The Israeli media, comprised of individuals
who are themselves traumatized by the tragedy,
attempt to rationalize the trauma. Thus, the
media are a victim of the trauma, like the rest
caught in all the cycles of rationalization,
intellectualization, denial and other defense
mechanisms.
The following are several questions
relating to the collective Israeli traumatic
stress following the assassination.
1. To what degree did the
public witnessing the assassination experience
helplessness, terror and rage and to what
extent did the public that read about it
in the media experience it?
2. To what extent did the
numerous replays of the assassination on
TV cause an escalation of the traumatic
shock?
3. As a whole to what extent
did the public experience itself differently
after the assassination compared to life
prior to the tragedy?
4. To what degree does
denial reflect the behavior of the public?
5. To what extent is rationalization
a characteristic of the public's behavior
in the aftermath of the assassination?
In their book Reaction to
Trauma, Rion and Lois Everstone argue that
the cycle of events revolving around the trauma
can multiply the effect of the trauma on the
survivor. They postulated that a common phenomenon
for people is to utilize persona1 values in
justifying or explaining any event in life.
Therefore, the trauma is intensified through
personal values in any traumatized person and
the traumatic effect thus depends upon these
personalized experiences and values.
As to the major questions pertaining
to the effect that the traumatic stress has
on the national mood, several questions can
be applied to the personalized or collective
national values.
1. To what degree did the
trauma and its relationship to national
values intensify due to the betrayal of
national values pertaining to the taboo
of not killing a fellow Jewish brother?
The Prime Minister was assassinated by a
Jew, a native of Israel. Furthermore, where
did the aggressive energy--which the Jewish
people experienced throughout their existence
in protecting themselves against outside
aggressors--go? In the past, that energy
was directed to the outside and now it was
trapped within the people because the aggressor
came from within. What did this trapped
energy do to the people and how did it affect
their traumatic stress?
2. The guilt deriving from
failing to appropriately protect the Prime
Minister: how does the national guilt affect
the nation's collective traumatic stress?
This guilt derives from the betrayal
of an ideology and values highlighting the
fact that Israelis never abandon a soldier
on 'the battlefield. The most important
soldier in Israel, the Prime Minister, was
exposed to danger and was abandoned. How
does this failed ideology affect the public's
traumatic stress? How is it internalized
by the people and what are its implications?
3. As a whole, to what
extent do the adverse events affect the
deterioration or collapse of fundamental
Jewish and national values, i.e. life, Jewish
solidarity, a common destiny? Israelis are
forever loyal to one another. Israelis protect
one another; life is a superior priority,
it must be a sanctuary.
Finally, in the eyes of many,
the traumatic stress following a tragedy may
be expressed by the individual as a weakness.
Therefore, many people who undergo traumatic
stress which might escalate into posttraumatic
stress tend to suppress their emotional reactions
because of shame and vulnerability, feeling
that no one can fully understand their unique
subjective painful experience. Bearing this
in mind, it is important to become aware of
these and other emotions which trigger resistance
and other difficulties, in getting help. Thus,
the goal would be to initiate both individual
and collective therapeutic processes centering
on resolving the traumatic stress and addressing
the symptoms of traumatic stress suffered by
the individual as well as by the group.
Dr. Moti Peleg is an Israeli
Psychologist and the President of Psychological
Group of New Jersey, an outpatient clinic and
trauma recovery in Ridgewood, N.J. He specializes
in the treatment of reactive traumatic stress,
reactive depression and intimacy communications.
His writings have been published in various
Israeli papers and in professional journals.
©1997 by
The American Academy of Experts in Traumatic
Stress, Inc. |
