In this research, two studies were conducted in order to examine the psychological, social, somatic and educational effects of chronic traumatic experience on Palestinian children over the six years of the Al-Aqsa Intifada (2000-2006). Firstly, a quantitative study was conducted which aimed to explore the long-term effects of war and occupation on the Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip. The sample consisted of 1,137 children aged between ten and 18 years randomly selected from all parts of the Gaza Strip to participate in the study. The participants completed a Checklist of Traumatic Experiences (CTE), a Symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Scale (SPTSDS), a Network of Psycho-Social Support (NPSS) and a Personality Assessment Questionnaire (PAQ). This study found that every child in Palestine is likely to have been exposed to at least three traumatic events. Importantly, this study also found that 41% of the participants suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD). This indicates that there are potentially more than 300,000 children in the Gaza Strip in need of psychological, social,and medical services in the areas of rehabilitation and therapeutic treatment. The study revealed that the support of family, friends, relatives, teachers, and spiritual leaders can be of great help. In addition to this, positive traits of personality can reduce the effects of PTSD. Secondly, a qualitative study aimed to explore, in more depth, the moderating factors relating to Palestinian children who have been exposed to chronic traumatic experiences, particularly the children who show low levels of PTSD. The sample consisted of six children interviewed in Arabic by using a semi-structured interview. They were aged between 13-18 years. The participants were selected according to the amount of traumatic events and level of PTSD experienced by the children who took part in the first study. This study found that the moderating factors and levels of influence which protected them from developing PTSD are positive personality traits and ideological commitment, psychosocial support, entertainment and adaptation or acclimatization. This research concluded that having a normal childhood in Palestine is unlikely in the current circumstances and the future psychological well-being of Palestinian children is at risk of being compromised by on-going traumatic experiences.

South Africa has a high incidence of crime where violence is particularly being committed against adolescents. Trauma has a disruptive influence on the development of adolescents. There is a lack of research focussing on pastoral counselling from a postmodern perspective regarding adolescents who experience acute trauma. This study makes use of three theories to make a meaningful contribution namely those of Rudolf Otto (1869 – 1937), René Girard (1923 - ) and Donald Capps (1990, 1993, 1994,1996). This study finds Otto`s theory about the numinous useful to assist traumatized adolescents on the road to healing. A numinous experience causes two results namely an overwhelming feeling of awe and a feeling of fear that comes from respect and distance. Traumatized adolescents should be guided into a meeting with God in a confusing post-modern world. Through the appropriation of the numinous adolescents can reach infinitely more than only being a “seeker”. Girard`s (1978) theory on mimetic violence and the scapegoat mechanism has been used in this study since it throws some light on the manner in which traumatized adolescents process trauma. The scapegoat mechanism theory helps one to understand how violence can be processed by scapegoating someone or something else. Girard`s theory also enlightens on the theme of forgiveness. Forgiveness is the key to overcome the horrors of the past. Adolescents particularly need role models. These role models can be found amongst other things, on television. Role models teach adolescents about revenge and reprisal. This study demonstrates that by applying Girard`s theory to the cross of Jesus, the traumatized and crucified Jesus becomes the role model for the “seekers” rather than identification with the peer group. Girard creates a greater understanding to manage trauma by exposing the scapegoat mechanism. Capps’ theory about hope and reframing on the other hand is useful in the sense that it gives hope for the future to adolescents. Hope therapy entails reframing since the situation needs a new perspective. The work of Capps, Reframing: New method in pastoral care (1990) was used as a framework. Narrative therapy is used because it assists the traumatized in their search for meaning. Ganzevoort’s (2000) theory regarding personal narrative identity proved to be useful in pastoral care to traumatized adolescents. The same applies to Erikson’s (1963) development theory, which includes the concept that the virtue of hope develops during childhood. It can also be associated with Moltmann’s (1974) view of hope as an alternative future for suffering persons. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

Aiming to make an intervention in both emerging Slow Cinema and classical Trauma Cinema scholarship, this thesis demonstrates the ways in which the post-trauma cinema of Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz merges aesthetics of cinematic slowness with narratives of post-trauma in his films Melancholia (2008), Death in the Land of Encantos (2007) and Florentina Hubaldo, CTE (2012). Diaz has been repeatedly considered as representative of what Jonathan Romney termed in 2004 “Slow Cinema”. The director uses cinematic slowness for an alternative approach to an on-screen representation of post-trauma. Contrary to popular trauma cinema, Diaz’s portrait of individual and collective trauma focuses not on the instantenaeity but on the duration of trauma. In considering trauma as a condition and not as an event, Diaz challenges the standard aesthetical techniques used in contemporary Trauma Cinema, as highlighted by Janet Walker (2001, 2005), Susannah Radstone (2001), Roger Luckhurst (2008) and others. Diaz’s films focus instead on trauma’s latency period, the depletion of a survivor’s resources, and a character’s slow psychological breakdown. Slow Cinema scholarship has so far focused largely on the films’ aesthetics and their alleged opposition to mainstream cinema. Little work has been done in connecting the films’ form to their content. Furthermore, Trauma Cinema scholarship, as trauma films themselves, has been based on the immediate and most radical signs of post-trauma, which are characterised by instantaneity; flashbacks, sudden fears of death and sensorial overstimulation. Following Lutz Koepnick’s argument that slowness offers “intriguing perspectives” (Koepnick, 2014: 191) on how trauma can be represented in art, this thesis seeks to consider the equally important aspects of trauma duration, trauma’s latency period and the slow development of characteristic symptoms. With the present work, I expand on current notions of Trauma Cinema, which places emphasis on speed and the unpredictability of intrusive memories. Furthermore, I aim to broaden the area of Slow Cinema studies, which has so far been largely focused on the films’ respective aesthetics, by bridging form and content of the films under investigation. Rather than seeing Diaz’s slow films in isolation as a phenomenon of Slow Cinema, I seek to connect them to the existing scholarship of Trauma Cinema studies, thereby opening up a reading of his films.