Comparison Of Post Traumatic Memory And Recovery

The presentation of topics, theory, and data in this work follows and inductive process of explanation, building upon previous sections to support each new presentation and the concluding assertions of the influence and value of narrative in the personal, psychological recovery of disaster survivors, the post-disaster identify formation of communities, and the recruitment of external assistance in the form of donations and volunteers. Chapter two introduces several key concepts related to discussion of traumatic memory and recovery in post-disaster experience, including a historical overview of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) research, its symptomology, and the debates surrounding its includes in the Diagnostic and Statics Manual of Mental

The discussion continues with acknowledgement of cultural variations to the concept of self and autobiographical memory. Following this, I present three in-depth accounts from tornado survivors, each with a different degree of narrative coherence and emotionality in their story. Two of the stories occurred in the same location and overlap on many points, allowing for a comparison of what is excluded or forgotten, what focus each teller expresses, and conflicting details. While one of the two engaged in extensive story-telling after the tornado, the other received some therapy but admitted to avoiding discussion and memory of the events on most occasions. The narrative coherence of the accounts indicates which survivor returned to traumatic and episodic memories during the recounting and which remained in more narrative memory during the session. The other survivor’s story did not take place in the same location as the other two, but contains a degree of difficulty in narration and coherence difficulty, indication some sections were easier to relate than others. Her account involves an extended period of danger and fear as well as isolation from family for several

Storytelling, prevalent throughout the world, employs differing styles based on the enculturated forms learned in early childhood. These styles are further encouraged through repeated storytelling through dialogic conversations and the interactive collaboration of narrators and their audiences. It is the personal narrative, or autobiographical memory, formed through these social influences, that helps form the sense of a coherent self and identity across the multiple in-the-moment expressions of identity. For groups, the power of narrative in identity formation is equally powerful, creating and sanctioning an official, shared history. When a disaster strikes, social groups collectively experience trauma differently than individuals do. Not possessing an individual psyche, trauma to the group is expressed through a communal ethos of grief and distress among citizens, including those not directly impacted by the disaster. Such traumas permanently change the group’s identity, creating a crisis to reestablish an identity which binds the group together. By apply meaningful interpretation of events into their collective narrative, communities can express a post-disaster identity that incorporates the disaster into their narrative