Following World War II the novel faced a crisis in its mode of address. How could the human and humane function of language and artistic representation be lent to the depiction of historical terror or trauma? Who has the right to speak on behalf of – or to assume the voice of – victims of such real atrocity? And to what extent can a writer attend to another's pain without aestheticising extreme vulnerability, or losing the reader to indifference or repulsion? The difficulties confronted by the writer of fictional works when addressing such issues as war, rape, domestic abuse, colonisation, slavery, even genocide are not rooted in an inadequacy of syntax; rather they are borne out of the disjunction between the idealistic assumptions that linked language to a sense of humanity, intelligence and the pursuit of goals beneficial to society as a whole, and the extremity of recent acts of human atrocity as conducted not by the savage Other but by modern societies with which the reader would otherwise identify. Since the mid-twentieth century a number of writers have responded to these challenges by forgoing the traditional dialogic form of the novel and electing characters that cannot or will not speak in order to convey, through their speechlessness and – at times – their damaged physicality, the extent of the violence and oppression to which they have been subjected, and the difficulty of assimilating such violence into the stories by which communities, indeed whole nations, define themselves. The unexpectedly large cast of mute characters suggests that silence has a vital role in the literary portrayal of historical trauma. The prevalence of silence in contemporary fiction related to the Holocaust, for example, shows how this group of writers recognises the extent to which this event tested and continues to test literary exploration. Writers the world over continue to refuse to ignore these subjects – indeed, the broken images and fragmented forms common to many of the novels studied in the following pages can be seen as an apt response to the chaos of war and human aggression – but, as is evident from the number of contemporary works of fiction incorporating a mute character, silence has become an accepted and effective tool for the portrayal of historical events of terror or trauma that continue to challenge the ethical boundaries of the imagination.

Current theorising of trauma continues to suffer from Post-Holocaust understandings that render trauma as indefinable, yet the myriad representations produced across different discursive domains – testimony, documentary, film and art – challenge such claims. Rather it is difficult to define, plagued by the parameters of trauma – as having no “beginning”, “ending”, “during” or “after” as Laub contends – and is further hampered by its clinically inadequate categorisation as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) within the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM). While the inclusion of PTSD in the DSM-III in 1980 promised to normalise the long history of trauma resulting from combat experience, its increasing and continuing expansion of categories since then has undermined this combat-specific diagnosis. Particularly, it fails to recognise the specific traumas intrinsic to soldiers who wage war as an occupation (specifically the act of killing), and the complex way in which PTSD is triggered in veterans (the political deceit and denial that accompanies the experience of the initial event). With 1 in 5 returned soldiers currently screening for PTSD, and more veterans having committed suicide than have died in combat, it is clear that there is a crisis in the way PTSD is theorised, recognised and understood. This thesis provides a discursive analysis of contemporary media texts, proposing that discourses produced within these domains challenge, undermine and potentially remedy combat trauma’s current “crisis of representation.” While professionally produced documentaries and current affairs programmes were found to align with the political and ideological discourses prominent within the military and psychiatric professions, soldier-produced content – through raw video, art and digital pastiche – functioned as traumatic performances that produced personal articulations of trauma. Moreover, the televisual flashback succeeds in conveying the “traumatised subjectivity” through cinematic and aesthetic conventions that allow the viewer to see beyond the confines of the body and into the flashback as it is experienced by the eye-witness. In doing so, these texts help to construct social and cultural knowledge of trauma and PTSD and facilitate acts of bearing witness. Such articulations allow veterans to understand their own disorder as normal and are influential in the processes of healing and recovery.

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This Master of Social Work thesis focused on the healing journeys of urban First Nations women who have overcome trauma. The purpose of this research study was to develop a deeper understanding of healing and trauma from an Indigenous perspective. This Master of Social Work thesis created space for Indigenous knowledges so that Indigenous perspectives on the aspects of healing and trauma could be brought forward. At the centre of this created space were the voices of urban First Nations women and their shared stories of healing. This qualitative research study applied Indigenous research methodology, which also included narrative research methodology. In this study, the stories of five First Nations women who reside in an urban centre in Manitoba and who were well into their journeys of healing from trauma were explored. Manitoba First Nations traditional values, practice and protocol guided this thesis project to ensure that this research was conducted ethically and respectfully. The Medicine Wheel was used as a conceptual framework to understand the journeys of healing as well as the trauma experiences of the five women within the context of the life stages of human development. The meta-narratives and life narratives of the women provided accounts of their healing journeys. The findings of this research identified the following three overarching themes: living colonized lives, relationships, and healing paths. Recommendations were outlined for future social work research, practice, and education.

Den svenska FM är beroende av civil sjukvård för kirurgiskt omhändertagande i händelse av skadeutfall. Under det kalla kriget vilade den svenska krigssjukvårdsorganisationen på den militära sjukvårdsorganisationen, civilförsvaret och den civila sjukvården. År 2014 är den militära kirurgiska omhändertagandeförmågan reducerad till ca 1 % av tidigare kapacitet. Civilförsvarets organisation och stor del av fasta installationer och beredskapsförråd har reducerats starkt. Uppgiften att planera och organisera för civilt skydd är i enlighet med ansvars-, likhets- och närhetsprinciperna delegerad till regional och lokal nivå. Centrala myndigheter bistår med vägledning. Den civila sjukvården har genomgått stora förändringar präglade av medicinsk utveckling med hög grad av specialisering parallellt med ekonomiska sparbeting. Detta har inneburit en långt driven rationalisering och effektivisering. Den beredskap för stora skadeutfall i händelse av väpnad konflikt som de svenska akutsjukhusen tidigare hade, finns inte längre kvar. Sjukvårdshuvudmännen uppfattar inte att de har uppgiften att planera för att hantera den storlek av skadeutfall som skulle följa på ett högintensivt väpnat angrepp. Många sjukhus ligger idag nära kapacitetstaket under ordinarie verksamhet och har små möjligheter att med uthållighet hantera större belastning. Beredskapslager av läkemedel och förbrukningsartiklar för kirurgisk verksamhet finns endast förrådsställda i starkt begränsad omfattning. De högteknologiska sjukhusen är sårbara för störningar avseende kraft, el, vatten, värme och IT. Reservfunktioner håller ojämn kvalitet bland sjukhusen och uthålligheten är generellt låg. Orsakerna till denna utveckling står huvudsakligen att finna i statsmakternas och de centrala myndigheternas tolkning av Sveriges säkerhetspolitiska läge och uppfattningen att väpnad konflikt på svenskt territorium är utesluten. Sveriges katastrofmedicinska beredskap bör integreras i den nationella säkerhetsstrategi som efterlyses i Försvarsberedningens rapport från 2013. En sådan strategi skulle kunna fungera som en övergripande vägledning för att säkerställa att Sverige får en tillfredställande beredskap för kirurgiskt omhändertagande av såväl militär personal som civilbefolkning.

The main goal of this research project was to explore the question “What is the crisis responder’s experience with youth suicide?” The primary researcher was a crisis responder who, over the course of seven years, worked in the field of crisis intervention and encountered situations involving youth suicidality. Research has shown that exposure to youth suicide can produce dramatic effects upon the perceptions and meaning of work for crisis responders. A self-case study approach based upon heuristic concepts and processes was utilized for the present study because a first-person account enabled the uncovering of phases of effects of exposure to suicidality, including immersion, incubation, and illumination. These phases were applied to clarify the nature of the lived experience of a crisis responder working in Manitoba, Canada on a mobile crisis team. Insight into the phenomenon was gained by synthesizing the personal experiences of being a crisis responder, and contextualizing it within the theoretical and empirical literature on exposure to suicidality. Based on current findings, directions for future research and implications for the professional development of crisis responder practitioners experiencing youth suicide were provided. The ramifications of long term service within this area were also explored.

Scholarship on David Foster Wallace understandably tends to focus on addiction in his novel Infinite Jest, as well as on his stated desire for a literary movement that transcends the recursive, ironic loop of the postmodern. This essay, however, explores issues of trauma and perversion in Wallace's fiction – primarily beginning with Infinite Jest, chronologically speaking – demonstrating Wallace's concern with the freedom of choice. A palpable friction exists between conservatism and sexual taboos, and this friction characterizes much, if not most, of Wallace's fictional oeuvre. A principally psychoanalytic reading of the sexual elements at play in Infinite Jest, as well as in several stories from Brief Interviews with Hideous Men and Oblivion, cultivates a more thorough understanding of the addiction theme present in his work.

There are many people in South Afrika that yearly get affected by crisis and trauma for example rape, murder, child molestation, divorce, loss of work, floods, fire, gang violence and critical motor, aircraft or industrial accidents. When we also take into account all the people that are dying due to HIV/AIDS and the children that are being left behind, it seems very characteristic of a tidal wave of people in misery. Christians are in no way exempt from all the heartache and pain in this present evil and broken world. The after-effects of crises and trauma effect them as well and they also struggle to fight through the emotional pain - therefore the necessity of the essential assistance and guidance from the church. From the exegetical research it became clear that guidance and teaching be deemed as an essential element to a crisis counseling equipping program of church office-bearers regarding the effective pastoral guidance of believers during or after crisis experiences. Within such a teaching program the charismata - that is essentially gifts given through the Holy Spirit for the equipping of believers within the body of Christ - must received central focus. In this regard the office-bearers fulfill a special function because part of their task is especially to guide traumatized believers to the truth of who God actually is - this can assist in creating an environment in which it will be more easy to abolish certain disbeliefs and negative feelings regarding their relationship to God. From the theological basis theory it became evident that office-bearers have an ideal position to assist believers in times of crisis, largely due to the unique position that spiritual leaders have in general within the congregation and community. Basic knowledgeable regarding effective crisis counselling is not necessarily acquired over years of training. It is therefore practically possible for office-bearers to be trained and equipped in basic counselling to assist the body of believers after a crisis or trauma. Within the chapter that dealt with pastoral guidance regarding complicated trauma, it became clear that it is important for church office-bearers to have extensive knowledge of the typical symptoms and causes of complicated trauma. This is specifically related to situations where the symptoms on average take more than six weeks to be resolved. With regard to the metatheoretical perspectives special focus was placed on possible insights from the neighouring sciences regarding the counselling of people after trauma and crises. The various phases of a traumatic experience seemed to be of special importance in this regard. Assistance in every specific phase will result in various levels of assistance and much focus is placed on this. From the results of the empirical research the interviews emphasized very clearly that where pastors are equipped, members of the congregation would prefer to be counseled by them. It also became quite clear that the pastoral guidance of church members can largely contribute to reducing post-traumatic stress. In the practical-theoretical part of this study an equipping program is proposed that will enable church office-bearers for meaningful pastoral assistance of people during and after times of crisis and complicated traumatic events. This equipping program can effectively be utilised by congregations and will largely contribute to the prevention of negative post-traumatic effects. / Thesis (M.A. (Pastoral))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

This study deals with the importance of the steps of grief and forgiveness in the recovery of the emotionally wounded person. The basis theoretical research clearly showed that God is the source of healing and forgiveness. The most important words for forgiveness in the Old Testament is salach, nasa and kaphar while aphiemi, apoluo and charizoma are the most important words for forgiveness in the New Testament. A special focus was consequently placed on these different words and the one overwhelming fact that repeatedly came to the fore was that, if a person has been granted forgiveness by God, he should also forgive his transgressor. The meta-theoretical research has clearly shown that both grief and forgiveness consist of a process that has to be worked through. Losses may be experienced as a result of traumatic events and when these losses affect a person negatively, they must be grieved over. Usually before a person has not completed his grief work, he can not move on to forgiving his offender. For the purpose of the empirical study, five cases of people who experienced trauma were selected and studied. The study highlighted the importance of considering the unique personal history of each individual, especially with reference to unresolved traumatic experiences in this person's past. From each of these case studies the importance of forgiveness came strong to the fore as a determining factor regarding the healing process of the emotionally wounded person. In the practical theoretical section a pastoral model is presented within which the different phases of the process of grief, as well as the process of forgiveness, are very prominent. The six phases of grief are I) shock and denial, 2) anger, 3) depression, 4) bargaining and wishful thinking, 5) sorrow, 6) forgiveness, resolution and acceptance. The process of forgiveness consists of three phases and nine steps. Phase one is the preparation for forgiveness and consists of the following four steps: 1) Forgiveness must be understood. 2) Recognize that forgiveness is necessary. 3) Identify the emotions involved. 4) Confront the hate. Phase two is really the core of forgiveness and consists of the following three steps: 5) bearing the pain, 6) setting boundaries to protect oneself, 7) releasing those who have wronged us. Phase three is oriented toward the possibility of starting over and consists of the following two steps: 8) assuming responsibility, 9) longing for reconciliation. This is a model that can affectively be applied in the pastoral guidance of persons who are struggling with unresolved grief, and consequently are not able to forgive. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Pastoral))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

When will people empathize with and help others? The goal of this research was to determine whether a prosocial orientation results from experiencing trauma. Recent research suggests there may be positive consequences to suffering. Under certain conditions, such as when people experience post-traumatic growth, past suffering can lead to personal benefits. Building on this body of research, one aim of this thesis was to investigate the impact of subjective traumatic suffering and psychological distress on post-traumatic growth and empathy. The second aim of this research was to examine whether objective trauma severity predicts post-traumatic growth. Finally, the third aim of this research was to examine the relationship between post-traumatic growth and empathy and the simultaneous impact of these variables on a prosocial orientation. Study 1 assessed these aforementioned relationships and Study 2 included a manipulation of post-traumatic growth and a behavioural outcome measure of prosocial behaviour. Structural equation models for Study 1 and 2 indicated that subjective traumatic suffering and objective trauma severity positively predicted post-traumatic growth, and post-traumatic growth positively predicted empathy. In turn, empathy positively predicted several prosocial outcomes. Thus, empathy mediated the link between post-traumatic growth and a prosocial orientation. In contrast to subjective traumatic suffering, psychological distress was unrelated to post-traumatic growth and negatively predicted empathy. Study 2 further indicated that focusing on one’s growth in regards to trauma resulted in greater post-traumatic growth scores, but the manipulation had no direct impact on empathy or a prosocial orientation. The current findings have important social and clinical implications.