On words and wounds: Intergenerational Trauma and Identity in Selected Shoah and Apartheid Memoirs

Following the trauma of the Shoah, many survivors took to writing their experiences in memoir. The trauma  memoir, a term defined in the body of this thesis, became a significant space to share real world experiences of a genocide that shocked the world. Trauma is continuous, it lives on through the repetitive behaviours of the survivor, a concept that Sigmund Freud conceptualizes as the “compulsion to repeat” (XVII 1920–1922 19).

 

Posttraumatic stress disorder in Belgian police officers : prevalence and the effects of exposure to traumatic events

Background: Police officers are at considerable risk of developing posttraumatic symptoms because they frequently encounter violent or emotionally disturbing incidents. We investigate experiences with potentially traumatic events (PTE), traumatic exposure, and the prevalence of probable posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), complex PTSD and subclinical PTSD in a sample of Belgian police officers.

 

Community based sociotherapy for depressive symptomatology of Congolese refugees in Rwanda and Uganda (CoSTAR) : a protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial

Background: Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo has led to large numbers of refugees fleeing to Uganda and Rwanda. Refugees experience elevated levels of adverse events and daily stressors, which are associated with common mental health difficulties such as depression. The current cluster randomised controlled trial aims to investigate whether an adapted form of Community-based Sociotherapy (aCBS) is effective and cost-effective in reducing depressive symptomatology experienced by Congolese refugees in Uganda and Rwanda.

 

Efficacy of traumatic memory reactivation with or without propranolol in PTSD with high dissociative experiences

Background: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with dissociative symptoms is now a full-fledged subtype of this disorder. The dissociative subtype is associated with a greater number of psychiatric comorbidities. To date, the impact of dissociation on the efficacy of PTSD treatment remains unclear.

 

Breathe and Let Be : Improving Posttraumatic Stress and Neurobiological Dysregulation with Game-Based Meditation Therapy among Traumatized Adolescents in Residential Care

The aim of the current dissertation is three-fold. First, we aimed to provide insight with regard to the alterations of traumatized youths’ neurobiological stress systems (PART I). We investigated sympathetic, parasympathetic, and HPA axis parameters among traumatized adolescents in residential care and a nontraumatized comparison sample. Both basal activity during rest and reactivity to acute social stress were evaluated. The outcomes of this study are described in Chapter 2.

 

Mapping Hiding Places : Researching hiding places used by Jewish people during World War II

'Mapping Hiding Places' is an international research project that has started with data collection in the Netherlands, by students of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Faculty of Humanities. The project is an initiative of Dr Dienke Hondius, to collect information about hiding places used by Jews in Europe to escape Nazi persecution during the Holocaust (1933-1945).

 

 

Mapping the availability of translated versions of posttraumatic stress disorderscreening questionnaires for adults : A scoping review

Background: The most used questionnaires for PTSD screening in adults were developed in English. Although many of these questionnaires were translated into other languages, the procedures used to translate them and to evaluate their reliability and validity have not been consistently documented. This comprehensive scoping review aimed to compile the currently available translated and evaluated questionnaires used for PTSD screening, and highlight important gaps in the literature.

 

Effects of current treatments for trauma survivors with posttraumatic stress disorder on reducing a negative self-concept : a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: A negative self-concept is characterised by dysfunctional cognitions about the self and has been suggested to be a key factor involved in the development and maintenance of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In addition, the current definitions of PTSD according to DSM-5 and the new ICD-11 diagnosis of Complex PTSD (CPTSD) include aspects of negative self-concept in their diagnostic criteria.

 

Culture and suicide : An exploration of the cultural factors involved in suicide

Many factors can contribute to suicide. The psychological drivers, however, are most examined. This focus on mental factors is supported by the global hegemony of the medical-psychiatric model. This is reflected in the global focus on preventing suicide by detecting and treating mental risk factors. Other factors that contribute to suicide, such as culture, receive less attention.

 

Witchcraft beliefs around the world : An exploratory analysis

This paper presents a new global dataset on contemporary witchcraft beliefs and investigates their correlates. Witchcraft beliefs cut across socio-demographic groups but are less widespread among the more educated and economically secure. Country-level variation in the prevalence of witchcraft beliefs is systematically linked to a number of cultural, institutional, psychological, and socioeconomic characteristics.

 

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