Wei-Ting Lee
Clinical Psychology Department Pali Psychiatric Center
The most frequently used discourse about the victims’ psychological dimension after the ‘921’ earthquake is Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): that is, psychological trauma created directly by catastrophes. The main task of rehabilitation is then expected to screen out high-risk psychologically traumatized population for further treatment. The present article, however, suggests that, for the psychological difficulties in such victims, the earthquake is a triggering event which evokes previous psychological problems that play major roles in life after catastrophe. With this understanding, psychological rehabilitation should not only focus on “symptom” induced by traumatic stress, but should have a broader horizon in order to attend to the victims’ lives as a whole. Besides the analysis of the psychological world of the victims, the present article also includes four other major parts: first, reflections and suggestions about the role and intervention of psychologists in the rehabilitation; second, two hypotheses, “catastrophe complex” and “psychological radiation”; third, a model of post-catastrophe psychological intervention; and fourth, suggestions for government administration.
Keywords: catastrophe, PTSD, triggering events, psychologist, catastrophe complex, psychological radiation, psychological rehabilitation