PSYCHOLOGICAL RESPONSES TO WAR AND ATROCITY - THE LIMITATIONS OF CURRENT CONCEPTS

Because of the prevalence of wars, political violence and other forms of man-made disaster in Third World countries many individuals and com munities suffer prolonged and often multiple traumas. In Western psych iatry certain conceptions of the response to violence and trauma have been developed, including the widely used category of post-traumatic s tress disorder (PTSD). We argue that because concepts such as PTSD imp licitly endorse a Western ontology and value system, their use in non- Western groups should be, atmost, tentative.