Do South African former detainees experience post-traumatic stress? Circumventing the demand characteristics of psychological assessment.
Do South African former detainees experience post-traumatic stress? Circumventing the demand characteristics of psychological assessment.
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DOI：
10.1177/1363461504045643
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发表时间：
2004-09-01
影响因子：
2.5
通讯作者：
Kagee, Ashraf
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Kagee, Ashraf
大多数针对因政治原因遭受身体或心理折磨的人的研究都将这种经历视为创伤性经历，其后遗症接近创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）的诊断标准。然而，对创伤模型的批评引起了人们对以下事实的关注：创伤后应激障碍代表了西方对经历过压力经历的人的担忧的概念化。为了确定创伤症状是否是南非前被拘留者的显着精神现象，对 20 名在种族隔离时代因政治原因被拘留和酷刑的受访者进行了半结构化定性访谈。使用扎根理论方法对访谈内容进行转录和分析。结果显示，虽然参与者表达的主要担忧与创伤无关，但参与者也表示他们经历了创伤后应激症状。这些数据表明，虽然过分关注创伤反应可能是错误的，但考虑前被拘留者可能表现出这种性质的症状的可能性仍然很重要。因此，对创伤话语作为一种西方现象的批评需要用该人群所经历的心理后遗症的现实证据来调和。
Most research on persons subjected to physical or psychological torture for political reasons has framed this experience as traumatic, with the sequelae approximating the diagnostic criteria of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Yet, critiques of the trauma model have called attention to the fact that PTSD represents a Western conceptualization of the concerns of persons who have survived stressful experiences. In order to determine whether symptoms of traumatization are salient psychiatric phenomena for South African former detainees, semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 20 respondents who were detained and tortured for political reasons during the apartheid era. Interviews were transcribed and analysed for thematic content using a grounded theory approach. Results showed that although the main concerns expressed were unrelated to traumatization, participants also indicated that they experienced symptoms of post-traumatic stress. These data suggest that although too great a focus on traumatic responses may be misplaced, it remains important to consider the possibility that former detainees may exhibit symptoms of this nature. Consequently, critiques of the trauma discourse as a Western phenomenon need to be tempered with evidence of the lived reality of psychological sequelae experienced by this population.