Culture and PTSD: Trauma in Global and Historical Perspective

Description

Since the 1970s, understanding of the effects of trauma, including flashbacks and withdrawal, has become widespread in the United States. As a result Americans can now claim that the phrase posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is familiar even if the American Psychiatric Association's criteria for diagnosis are not. As embedded as these ideas now are in the American mindset, however, they are more widely applicable, this volume attempts to show, than is generally recognized. The essays in Culture and PTSD trace how trauma and its effects vary across historical and cultural contexts. Culture and PTSD examines the applicability of PTSD to other cultural contexts and details local responses to trauma and the extent they vary from PTSD as defined in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. Investigating responses in Peru, Indonesia, Haiti, and Native American communities as well as among combat veterans, domestic abuse victims, and adolescents, contributors attempt to address whether PTSD symptoms are present and, if so, whether they are a salient part of local responses to trauma. Moreover, the authors explore other important aspects of the local presentation and experience of trauma-related disorder, whether the Western concept of PTSD is known to lay members of society, and how the introduction of PTSD shapes local understandings and the course of trauma-related disorders. By attempting to determine whether treatments developed for those suffering PTSD in American and European contexts are effective in global settings of violence or disaster, Culture and PTSD questions the efficacy of international responses that focus on trauma. Contributors: Carmela Alcántara, Tom Ball, James K. Boehnlein, Naomi Breslau, Whitney Duncan, Byron J. Good, Mary-Jo DelVecchio Good, Jesse H. Grayman, Bridget M. Haas, Devon E. Hinton, Erica James, Janis H. Jenkins, Hanna Kienzler, Brandon Kohrt, Roberto Lewis-Fernández, Richard J. McNally, Theresa D. O'Nell, Duncan Pedersen, Nawaraj Upadhaya, Carol M. Worthman, Allan Young. Cover Contents PART I. INTRODUCTION AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Introduction. Culture, Trauma, and PTSD Chapter 1. The Culturally Sensitive Assessment of Trauma: Eleven Analytic Perspectives, a Typology of Errors, and the Multiplex Models of Distress Generation PART II. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES Chapter 2. Is PTSD a Transhistoric Phenomenon? Chapter 3. What Is “PTSD”? The Heterogeneity Thesis Chapter 4. From Shell Shock to PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury: A Historical Perspective on Responses to Combat Trauma PART III. CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES Chapter 5. Trauma in the Lifeworlds of Adolescents: Hard Luck and Trouble in the Land of Enchantment Chapter 6. Gendered Trauma and Its Effects: Domestic Violence and PTSD in Oaxaca Chapter 7. Exploring Pathways of Distress and Mental Disorders: The Case of the Highland Quechua Populations in the Peruvian Andes Chapter 8. Latinas’ and Latinos’ Risk for PTSD After Trauma Exposure: A Review of Sociocultural Explanations Chapter 9. Karma to Chromosomes: Studying the Biology of PTSD in a World of Culture Chapter 10. Square Pegs and Round Holes: Understanding Historical Trauma in Two Native American Communities Chapter 11. Culture, Trauma, and the Social Life of PTSD in Haiti Chapter 12. Is PTSD a “Good Enough” Concept for Postconflict Mental Health Care? Reflections on Work in Aceh, Indonesia List of Contributors Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z