In the past few decades, thousands of new memorials to executed witches, victims of terrorism, and dead astronauts, along with those that pay tribute to civil rights, organ donors, and the end of Communism have dotted the American landscape. Equally ubiquitous, though until now less the subject of serious inquiry, are temporary memorials: spontaneous offerings of flowers and candles that...

The current definition of a traumatic event in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5, American Psychiatric Association, 2013) may be too narrow to describe the myriad of difficult childhood experiences. Furthermore, youth may develop a distinct pattern of symptoms in relation to complex or multiple childhood trauma experiences, the proposed developmental...

Despite the widely accepted belief that meaning making is essential for mental health following adversity, the available research continues to provide mixed findings: meaning making is sometimes evident, sometimes not, and more frequently than we would expect associated with poor health outcomes. The papers that comprise this special issue of Memory put flesh to those bones by approaching the...

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a highly recurrent disease. Stress-responsive system dysfunction seems to persist after remission. In patients with more chronic and recurrent depressive episodes, state related HPA-axis dysregulation might be a risk factor for prospective recurrence. This study examines the predictive effect of cortisol on consecutive episodes in remitted recurrently depressed...

A search along the Burma-Thailand Railway 65 years later- The heavy work on this railroad started in June 1942 and, after 415 kilometers, 16 months later, was completed in October 1943. Much has disappeared or changed in recent decades: the remaining tracks will disappear by the ravages of time. Like the people who worked on it. A piece of 'real' history is slowly disappearing. This publication...

Lost in Srebrenica is an interdisciplinary PhD thesis in the areas of Dutch/UN Peacekeeping in Srebrenica, international politics, genocide studies, ethics and foreign politics, international law and history. The events in Srebrenica are still haunting international politics as “Europe’s Worst Massacre since the Second World War,” as can be illustrated by the new and old Srebrenica issues...

The first wave of research on loss and potentially traumatic events (PTEs) was dominated by either a psychopathological approach emphasizing individual dysfunction or an event approach emphasizing average differences between exposed and nonexposed groups. We consider the strengths and limitations of these approaches and then review more recent research that has focused on the heterogeneity of...

BackgroundHypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis hyperactivity has been observed in (recurrent) major depressive disorder (MDD), although inconsistently and mainly cross-sectional. Longitudinal studies clarifying state-trait issues are lacking. We aimed to determine whether HPA-axis (hyper)activity in recurrent MDD is: (I) reflecting a persistent trait, (II) influenced by depressive state, (...

Background: The prevalence of 30-day mental disorders with retrospectively reported early onsets is significantly higher in the U.S. Army than among sociodemographically matched civilians. This difference could reflect high prevalence of preenlistment disorders and/or high persistence of these disorders in the context of the stresses associated with military service. These alternatives can to...