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From PTSD to Voices in Context: From an "Experience-Far" to an "Experience-Near" Understanding of Responses to War and Atrocity Across Cultures

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  • Judith Zur

    (Refugee Mental Health Support Project, Willesden Centre for Psychological Treatment, Willesden Hospital. Harlesden Road, London NW10 3RY, U.K.)

Abstract

This paper examines some of the difficulties of exporting the Western concept of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to non-Western cultures. Using data drawn from Guatemala 1 where I lived and worked among Quiché Mayan war widows, illustrates how cultural ly-specif ic understandings of events and reactions to them affect the well-being (or otherwise) of people exposed to extreme adverse events. The paper turns 2 to the voices of the widows, who experienced and survived intense political conflict, explaining their experiences of violence within their particular context.

Suggested Citation

  • Judith Zur, 1996. "From PTSD to Voices in Context: From an "Experience-Far" to an "Experience-Near" Understanding of Responses to War and Atrocity Across Cultures," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 42(4), pages 305-317, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:42:y:1996:i:4:p:305-317
    DOI: 10.1177/002076409604200405
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Eisenbruch, Maurice, 1991. "From post-traumatic stress disorder to cultural bereavement: Diagnosis of Southeast Asian refugees," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 673-680, January.
    2. Bracken, Patrick J. & Giller, Joan E. & Summerfield, Derek, 1995. "Psychological responses to war and atrocity: The limitations of current concepts," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 40(8), pages 1073-1082, April.
    3. Gaines, Atwood D., 1992. "From DSM-I to III-R; voices of self, mastery and the other: A cultural constructivist reading of U.S. psychiatric classification," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 3-24, July.
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