Abstract
A local elementary-school janitor walked into a cafeteria in Florida in the United States, filled with chattering schoolchildren, and shot his supervisor in the chest with a shotgun. As a children and teachers watched in horror, the murderer left the room, fired the remaining shot over the playground, and left the campus. The county sheriff’s office caught the man within an hour. The elementary school implemented its “code blue” system, which kept all children safely in their classrooms, while school counselors from throughout the county converged to provide crisis counseling. School officials informed parents of the events and provided suggestions for helping their children overcome the extreme event. Indeed, the plans for protecting children and promoting their emotional recovery were state-of-the-art, and the school system carried them out effectively. All the “victims” were cared for. All, except the parents of the children. However, they, too, were confronted with the frightening experience. They listened to the stories of the children and the officials. They identified with the reactions of their children. And they felt angry and frightened.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
American Psychiatric Association. (1980). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders ( 3rd ed.; DSM-III). Washington, DC: Author.
American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders ( 4th ed.; DSM-IV). Washington, DC: Author.
Barocas, H., & Barocas, C. (1980). Separation-individuation conflicts in children of Holocaust survivors. Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 11, 6 - 14.
Berah, E. F., Jones, H. I., & Valent, P. (1984). The experience of a mental health team involved in the early phase of a disaster. Australian-New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 18, pp. 354 - 358.
Blake, D. D., Albano, A. M., & Keane, T. M. (1992). Twenty years of trauma: Psychological abstracts 1970 through 1989. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 5, 477 - 485.
Bolin, R. (1985). Disaster characteristics and psychosocial impacts. In B. J. Sowder (Ed.), Disaster and mental health: Selected contemporary perspectives (pp. 3 - 28 ). Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Bowlby, J. (1981). Attachment and loss (3 vols.). London: Pelican Books.
Brom, D., & Kleber, R. J. (1989). prevention of posttraumatic stress disorders. Journal of Traumatic Stress Studies, 2, 335 - 351.
Brom, D., Kfir, R., & Dasberg, H. (1994). A controlled double-blind study on the offspring of Holocaust survivors. Poster presented at the Annual Conference of the Society of Traumatic Stress Studies, Chicago, November 1994.
Carroll, E. M., Rueger, D. B., Foy, D. W., & Donahoe, C. P. (1985). Vietnam combat veterans with PTSD: Analysis of marital and cohabiting. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 94, 329 - 337.
Cerney, M. S. (1995). Treating the “heroic treaters.” In C. R. Figley (Ed.), Compassion fatigue: Coping with secondary traumatic stress disorder in those who treat the traumatized (pp. 131 - 149 ). New York: Brunner/Mazel.
Cohen, A. A., & Dotan, J. (1976). Communication in the family as a function of stress during war and peace. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 38, 141 - 148.
Danieli, Y. (1982). Families of survivors of the Nazi Holocaust: Some short and long term effects. In C. D. Spielberger, I. G. Sarason (Eds.), Stress and anxiety (Vol. 8, pp. 405421 ). New York: Hemisphere.
Danieli, Y. (1985). The treatment and prevention of long-term effects and intergenerational transmission of victimization: A lesson from Holocaust survivors and their children. In C. R. Figley (Ed.), Trauma and its wake: The study and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (pp. 295 - 313 ). New York: Brunner/Mazel.
Dixon, P. (1991). Vicarious victims of a maritime disaster. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 19, 8 - 12.
Eland, J., Van der Velden, P. G., Kleber, R. J., & Steinmetz, C. H. D. (1990). Tweede generatie Joodse Nederlanders: Een onderzoek naar gezinsachtergronden en psychisch functioneren. Deventer: Van Loghum Slaterus.
Figley, C. R. (1983). Catastrophes: An overview of family reactions. In C. R. Figley, H. I. McCubbin (Eds.), Stress and the family: Vol. 2. Coping with catastrophe (pp. 3 - 20 ). New York: Brunner/Mazel.
Figley, C. R. (1985). From victim to survivor: Social responsibility in the wake of catastrophe. In C. R. Figley (Ed.), Trauma and its wake: The study and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (pp. 398 - 415 ). New York: Brunner/Mazel.
Figley, C. R. (1988). Toward a field of traumatic stress. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 1, 3 - 6.
Figley, C. R. (1991). Investigation of war-related stress among families of Gulf War military service personnel. Unpublished research proposal, Florida State University Marriage and Family Therapy Center, Tallahassee, Florida.
Figley, C. R. (Ed.). (1995). Compassion fatigue: Coping with secondary traumatic stress disorder in those who treat the traumatized. New York: Brunner/Mazel.
Figley, C. R., & Sprenkle, D. H. (1978). Delayed stress response syndrome: Family therapy indications. Journal of Marriage and Family Counseling, 4, 53 - 60.
Freud, S. (1955). Jenseits des Lustprinzips, Gesammelte Werke (Vol. 13). London: Imago. (original work published 1920 )
Freyberg, J. T. (1980). Difficulties in separation-individuation as experienced by offspring of Nazi Holocaust survivors. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 50, 87 - 95.
Gilbert, K. (1995). Couple coping: The loss of a child. In C. R. Figley, N. Mazze, B. Bride (Eds.), Death and trauma. New York: Brunner/Mazel.
Herman, J. L. (1992). Trauma and recovery: The aftermath of violence. New York: Basic Books. Hill, R. (1949). Families under stress: Adjustment to the crisis of war separation and reunion. New York: Harper.
Janoff-Bulman, R. (1992). Shattered assumptions: Towards a new psychology of trauma. New York: Free Press.
Kleber, R. J., & Brom, D., in collaboration with Defares, P. B. (1992). Coping with trauma: Theory, prevention and treatment. Amsterdam and Berwyn, Pennsylvania: Swets & Zeitlinger International.
Kleber, R. J., & Van der Velden, P. G. (1995). Acute stress at work. In M. J. Schabracq, J. A. M. Winnubst, C. L. Cooper (Eds.), Handbook of work and health psychology. New York: Wiley.
Kulka, R. A., Schlenger, W. A., Fairbank, J. A., Hough, R. L., Jordan, B. K., Marmar, C. R., & Weiss, D. S. (1991). Trauma and the Vietnam war veteran generation. New York: Brunner/Mazel.
Leon, G. R., Butcher, J. N., Kleinman, M., Goldberg, A., & Almagor, M. (1981). Survivors of the Holocaust and their children: Current status and adjustment. journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41(3), 503-516.
Levy, A., & Neumann, M. (1987). Involving families in the treatment of combat reactions. Journal of Family Therapy, 9, 177 - 188.
Lindy, J. D. (1993). Focal psychoanalytic psychotherapy of posttraumatic stress disorder. In J. P. Wilson, B. Raphael (Eds.), International handbook of traumatic stress syndromes (pp. 803 - 809 ). New York: Plenum Press.
Maloney, L. J. (1988). Post traumatic stress on women partners in Vietnam veterans. Smith College Studies in Social Work, 58, 122 - 143.
Maslach, C., & Jackson, S. E. (1981). The measurement of experienced burnout. Journal of Occupational Behaviour, 2, 99 - 113.
Maslach, C., & Schaufeli, W. B. (1993). Historical and conceptual development of burnout. In W. B. Schaufeli, C. Maslach, T. Marek (Eds.), Professional burnout: Recent developments in therapy and research (pp. 1 - 16 ). Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis.
McCamrnon, S. L., & Allison, E. J., Jr. (1995). Debriefing and treating emergency workers. In C. R. Figley (Ed.), Compassion fatigue: Coping with secondary traumatic stress disorder in those who treat the traumatized (pp. 115 - 130 ). New York: Brunner/Mazel.
McCann, I. L., & Pearlman, L. A. (1990). Vicarious traumatization: A contextual model for understanding the effects of trauma on helpers. journal of Traumatic Stress, 3, 131–149.
McCubbin, H. 1., Dahl, B. B., Lester, G., & Ross, B. (1977). The returned prisoner of war: Factors in family reintegration. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 39, 471 - 478.
Miller, K. I., Stiff, J. B., & Ellis, B. H. (1988). Communication and empathy as precursors to burnout among human services workers. Communication Monographs, 55, 277 - 301.
Mitchell, J. T., & Everly, G. S., Jr. (1995). Critical incident stress debriefing (CISD) and the prevention of work related traumatic stress among high risk occupational groups. In G. S. Everly, Jr., & J. M. Lating (Eds.), Psychotraumatology: Key papers and core concepts in post-traumatic stress (pp. 267 - 280 ). New York: Plenum Press.
Musaph, H. (1978). De tweede generatie oorlogsslachtoffers: Psychopathologische problemen. Maandblad voor Geestelijke Volksgezondheid, 33 (12).
Nice, D. S., McDonald, B., & McMillian, T. (1981). The families of U.S. Navy prisoners of war from Vietnam five years after reunion. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 43, 431 - 437.
Pines, A., & Aronson, E. (1988). Career burnout: Causes and cures. New York: Free Press. Rakoff, V., Sigal, J. J., & Epstein, N. (1965). Children and families of concentration camp survivors. Canada’s Mental Health, 14, 24 - 26.
Remer, R., & Elliott, J. (1988a). Characteristics of secondary victims of sexual assault. International journal of Family Psychiatry, 9, 373 - 387.
Remer, R., & Elliott, J. (1988b). Management of secondary victims of sexual assault. International journal of Family Psychiatry, 9, 389 - 401.
Rose, S. L., & Garske, J. (1987). Family environment, adjustment and coping among children of Holocaust survivors: A comparative investigation. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 57 (3).
Rosenbeck, R., & Thomson, J. (1986). “Detoxification” of Vietnam veterans war trauma: A combined family-individual approach. Family Process, 25, 559-570.
Rueger, D. B. (1983). PTSD: Analysis of female partners relationship perception. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Anaheim, California.
Russell, A. (1980). Late effects-Influence on the children of the concentration camp survivor. In J. E. Dimsdale (Ed.), Survivors, victims and perpetrators: Essays on the Nazi Holocaust (pp. 175 - 204 ). Washington DC: Hemisphere.
Rustin, S., & Lipsig, F. (1972). Psychotherapy with adolescent children of concentration camp survivors. Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 4 (2), 87 - 94.
Seligman, M. E. P. (1975). Helplessness: On depression, development and death. San Francisco: Freeman.
Sigal, J. J., & Rakoff, V. (1971). Concentration camp survival: A pilot study of effects on the second generation. Canadian Psychiatric Association Journal, 16, 393 - 397.
Sigal, J. J., Silver, D., Rakoff, V., & Ellin, B. (1973). Some second generation effects of survival of the Nazi persecution. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 43, 320 - 327.
Sigal, J. J., & Weinfeld, M. (1985). Control of aggression in adult children of survivors of the Nazi persecution. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 94, 556 - 564.
Solkoff, N. (1992). Children of survivors of the Nazi Holocaust: A critical review of the literature. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 62, 342 - 358.
Solomon, Z. (1988). Somatic complaints, stress reaction and posttraumatic stress disorder: A three year follow-up study. Behavioral Medicine, 14, 179 - 186.
Solomon, Z., Mikulincer, M., Fried, B., & Wosner, Y. (1987). Family characteristics of posttraumatic stress disorder: A follow-up of Israeli combat stress reaction casualties. Family Process, 26, 383 - 394.
Solomon, Z., Waysman, M., Avitzur, E., & Enoch, D. (1991). Psychiatric symptomatology among wives of soldiers following combat stress reaction: The role of the social network and marital relations. Anxiety Research, 4, 213 - 223.
Solomon, Z., Waysman, M., Belkin, R., Levy, G., Mikulincer, M., & Enoch, D. (1992). Martial relations and combat stress reaction: The wives perspective. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 54, 316 - 326.
Solomon, Z., Waysman, M., Levy, G., Fried, B., Mikulincer, M., Benbenishty, R., Florian, V., & Bleich, A. (1992). From front line to home front: A study of secondary traumatization. Family Process, 31, 289 - 302.
Steinberg, I. (1995). Treating the loss of a child. In C. R. Figley, N. Mazze, B. Bride (Eds.), Death and trauma. New York: Brunner/Mazel.
Trimble, M. R. (1981). Post-traumatic neurosis: From railway spine to the whiplash. Chichester: Wiley.
Verbosky, S. J., & Ryan, D. A. (1988). Female partners of Vietnam veterans: Stress by proximity. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 9, 95 - 104.
Weiss, E., Connell, A. N., & Siter, R. (1986). Comparisons of second generation Holocaust survivors, immigrants and non-immigrants. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50 (4), 828 - 831.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1995 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Figley, C.R., Kleber, R.J. (1995). Beyond the “Victim”. In: Kleber, R.J., Figley, C.R., Gersons, B.P.R. (eds) Beyond Trauma. The Plenum Series on Stress and Coping. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9421-2_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9421-2_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-9423-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-9421-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive