English abstract
WHETHER IT IS THE EFFECT OF GLOBAL warming or just that satellite TVs are instantaneously connecting us to different parts of the world, dealing with the aftermath of natural disasters is becoming an increasingly common phenomenon. Huge efforts are expended on the key tasks of saving and rebuilding lives and rehabilitating infrastructure, but natural and other disasters also leave many people with subtle yet intransigent emotional disorders. In the mental health fraternity, the sequelae of such disasters are labelled post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD). In Western populations, PTSD affects approximately 3.6% of the population and the impact and of distress this condition constitute a serious public health problem. With the increasing numbers of trauma causing disasters around the world, the need is growing for a treatment system that can be applied internationally. Yet, there is no evidence that this volume will be a panacea for the global challenges posed by natural and other disasters. This volume may not meet the needs of the 80% of the global population living outside Western Europe, North America and Argentina. Many have testified, be it bush-doctors in equatorial Africa or psychiatrists in urban Asia that different cultures neither perceive nor experience trauma alike. With much of the world aloof to the psychoanalytical approach, this book would be more useful for practitioners, psychoanalytic ones in particular, in New York and Buenos Aires rather than Jakarta or Muscat.
