Individual and Community Responses to Trauma and Disaster

Book excerpt: The aims of this book are twofold: to improve understanding of the human experience of trauma, whether at the level of the individual or the community, and to help those who are its victims. The range of issues covered is impressive, from the biological basis of post-traumatic stress reactions, through practical strategies for prevention and treatment, to the psychosocial and fictional construction of terror. Wherever possible the editors have sought to impart understanding, order, and predictability to the experience of trauma and disasters in the belief that the way to recovery is through the mastery of chaotic events. This book will serve and inform clinicians, administrators and research workers in psychiatry, psychology, public health and related areas.