tailieunhanh - Therapy after Terror 9/11, Psychotherapists, and Mental Health

Like phantom limbs that still can be felt even though they no longer exist, the twin towers of the World Trade Center continue to haunt New Yorkers, who – in the words of cartoonist Art Spiegelman (2004) – now live “in the shadow of no towers.” During the first years of their absence, accounts of the attack – including journalistic, governmental, academic, fictionalized, and cinematic portrayals – proliferated. The multiplication of accounts is entirely warranted, given that no single version can fully describe the attack’s antecedents, manifestations, and ramifications. Instead, the task of clarifying, classifying, calculating, and perhaps explaining the myriad causes and consequences of 9/11 can only be. | a rt H 1 í Ã B Ể O _wd ủ n rt B I A n Therapy after Terror KAREN M. SEELEY CAMBKinGt Cambridge 9780521884228 This page intentionally left blank Therapy after Terror Therapy after Terror examines the impact of the 2001 World Trade Center attack on mental health professionals in New York City and on the field of mental health. The events of 9 11 quickly were identified as an unprecedented public mental health crisis and urgent demands for psychological treatment ensued. In response thousands of mental health professionals volunteered their services on the scene while uncounted others provided treatment in their regular clinical settings. Yet few mental health professionals were experienced in assisting survivors of trauma let alone of a violent catastrophe of this magnitude. Moreover like other New Yorkers many therapists were 9 11 victims themselves if only indirectly. Based on interviews with New York City mental health professionals Therapy after Terror depicts therapists strikingly varied activities after the attack. This detailed study of the post-9 11 mental health crisis recounts the rapid organization and delivery of psychological services in schools and corporations in restricted locations such as the Lexington Avenue Armory Family Assistance Center and Ground Zero Respite Centers and in therapists private offices. It also closely examines the attack s psychological effects on therapy patients its unanticipated personal and professional consequences for therapists and its extraordinary challenges to conventional clinical theories and methods. In addition Therapy after Terror investigates the social and political dimensions of mental health concepts and practices. Critically analyzing shifting notions of trauma the subjective aspects of psychiatric diagnosis the increasing medicalization of behavior and the state s management of the national mood this book raises questions concerning the politics of psychotherapy after 9 11. Karen M. Seeley