Argentina (1976-1983): impacto y afrontamiento psicosocial

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Abstract

El presente estudio explora el impacto que tuvo la violencia represiva de la última dictadura militar argentina en una muestra de familiares de personas detenidas desaparecidas (n=30) y de personas que sobrevivieron a las cárceles de la dictadura (n=22). De los resultados se extrae que un tipo de afrontamiento activo de la experiencia y un apoyo social positivo, se relaciona con la posibilidad de dar sentido a lo ocurrido y la generación de una identidad en el sobreviviente. A la inversa, las formas de afrontamiento marcadas por la evitación se relacionan con más sintomatología de estrés postraumático, mayor alteración en el proceso de duelo y mayor impacto negativo en las creencias básicas.

Translated abstract

This study explores the impact of repressive violence during the last Argentinean military dictatorship's on a sample of relatives of people detained-disappeared for political reasons (n = 30) and people who survived imprisionment and torture (n=22). Facing of the experience from a political point of view, remaining socially active and positive social support are string elements in providing sense to the experience and generating a positive identity as a survivor. Viceversa, hidding and avoidance are related to post-traumatic symptoms, difficulties in the mourning process and a greater negative impact on basic beliefs.

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Most cited references 39

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Programmes costing millions of dollars to address 'posttraumatic stress' in war zones have been increasingly prominent in humanitarian aid operations, backed by UNICEF, WHO, European Community Humanitarian Office and many nongovernmental organisations. The assumptions underpinning this work, which this paper critiques with particular reference to Bosnia and Rwanda, reflect a globalisation of Western cultural trends towards the medicalisation of distress and the rise of psychological therapies. This paper argues that for the vast majority of survivors posttraumatic stress is a pseudocondition, a reframing of the understandable suffering of war as a technical problem to which short-term technical solutions like counselling are applicable. These concepts aggrandise the Western agencies and their 'experts' who from afar define the condition and bring the cure. There is no evidence that war-affected populations are seeking these imported approaches, which appear to ignore their own traditions, meaning systems, and active priorities. One basic question in humanitarian operations is: whose knowledge is privileged and who has the power to define the problem? What is fundamental is the role of a social world, invariably targeted in today's 'total' war and yet still embodying the collective capacity of survivor populations to mourn, endure and rebuild.

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S Magwaza (1999)

One way of understanding the impact of traumatic events is through exploration of cognitive changes that confront a traumatized individual. The author investigated changes in individuals' basic assumptions after traumatic experiences. The participants were 65 people who had been traumatized by representatives of the South African apartheid government. From the total sample, 36 participants had witnessed the violent death of a close relative (sibling, mother, or father). The remaining 29 had been tortured and detained. The author administered the World Assumption Scale (R. Janoff-Bulman, 1989), a semistructured questionnaire on basic assumptions developed for the present study, and the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Clinical Checklist (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Traumatic events affected the participants' basic assumptions about the meaning and benevolence of the world. The tortured and detained group and the bereaved group showed differences in their assumptions of self-worth following the trauma. Cognitive approaches can yield invaluable therapeutic insights into strategies for coping with trauma.