Holocaust survivors : Health and longevity 70 years later

Background
Holocaust survivors (HS) alive today form a unique and disappearing population, whose exposure to systematic genocide occurred over 70 years ago. Negative health outcomes were widely documented prior to age 70. We examine the hypothesis that the experience of remote trauma continues to negatively affect health, functional status, and survival between the ages of 85–95.

Read more

Long-lasting effects of World War II trauma on PTSD symptoms and embodiment levels in a national sample of Poles

The main aim of this study was to investigate the long-lasting influences of World War II (WWII) trauma in a national sample of Poles, based on Danieli’s (1998) survivors’ post-trauma adaptational styles (fighter, numb, victim) and their link with current post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and embodiment level among participants. We also sought to investigate whether the level of knowledge about WWII trauma among ancestors could moderate that association.

 

Read more

Courage, resistance and vulnerability in memory culture : Swedish Museum education and the representation of the Holocaust survivor at the turn of the twenty-first century

This article provides a Swedish perspective on critical memory culture and the use of difficult history in museum education. It is based on a detailed study of the educational resource the Teacher’s Guide, published by the Swedish Museum of Cultural History in Lund named Kulturen in 2006 in connection with their permanent exhibition, To Survive. Voices from Ravensbrück. The Guide shows how women, imprisoned in the Ravensbrück concentration camp, found ways to resist their situation and overcome their victim position.

Read more

Historical Memories in Transcarpathia : Oral Historical Reflections on the Second World War

Transcarpathia is a border and mostly mountainous region with a rather complex ethnographic and religious mosaic. It borders 4 countries (Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia), and geographically is the westernmost part of Ukraine. These factors contributed to the shape of a local multicultural population with fluid identities and very specific worldviews. The deepening of cultural ruptures is increased by regional historical memory, which shows the past in a way that is not described in the official historical grand narrative.

Read more

Lifelong effects of prenatal and early postnatal stress on the hippocampus, amygdala, and psychological states of Holocaust survivors

This study focuses on hippocampal and amygdala volume, seed-based connectivity, and psychological traits of Holocaust survivors who experienced stress during prenatal and early postnatal development. We investigated people who lived in Central Europe during the Holocaust and who, as Jews, were in imminent danger. The group who experienced stress during their prenatal development and early postnatal (PreP) period (n = 11) were compared with a group who experienced Holocaust-related stress later in their lives: in late childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood (ChA) (n = 21).

 

Read more

From Vulnerability to Resilience : How do Elderly Holocaust Survivors Living in a Nursing Home in Israel, Cope with the Threat of COVID-19? A Group Therapy Case Study

In addition to being an external event, the COVID-19 outbreak is a psychological event. As such, it elicits associations, memories, and metaphors around which threat perceptions are organized. These processes are likely to be especially significant among individuals who have experienced traumatic life events.

 

Read more

Taiwanese Comfort Women Survivors and Their Families : The Complexity of Identity, Motherhood, and Intergenerational Implications

During World War II, the Imperial Japanese Army forced many girls and women from Taiwan, Korea, China, and other Asian countries to serve as sexual slaves to the soldiers. Although the exploitative system of “comfort women” was widespread, its effects on the survivors’ identities throughout their lifetimes as well as its intergenerational effects on their families remain insufficiently explored in the existing literature.

Read more

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Complicated Grief Reactions : Treatment Protocol and Preliminary Findings From a Naturalistic Setting

In bereavement, some individuals develop complicated grief reactions (CGR), including symptoms of prolonged grief disorder (PGD), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and depression. Symptoms of PGD often co-occur with other complicated grief reactions, e.g., PTSD and depression, pointing to the need for a transdiagnostic understanding of CGR to inform treatment. In this paper, a transdiagnostic cognitive-behavioral therapy for CGR called “CBTgrief” is explained, including its theoretical framework and treatment content.

Read more

A randomized controlled trial of Deep Brain Reorienting : a neuroscientifically guided treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder

Background:

Read more

Impaired learning, memory, and extinction in posttraumatic stress disorder : translational meta-analysis of clinical and preclinical studies

Current evidence-based treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are efficacious in only part of PTSD patients. Therefore, novel neurobiologically informed approaches are urgently needed. Clinical and translational neuroscience point to altered learning and memory processes as key in (models of) PTSD psychopathology. We extended this notion by clarifying at a meta-level (i) the role of information valence, i.e. neutral versus emotional/fearful, and (ii) comparability, as far as applicable, between clinical and preclinical phenotypes.

Read more

Pages