ABSTRACT

In a world where genocides and wars are constant reality, understanding the long-term psychological impact of massive trauma on survivors, as well as identifying ways to promote resilience among them are crucial. Research has repeatedly demonstrated Holocaust survivors’ remarkable capacity to live with horrible memories and still function well; however, the exact nature of defensive and coping processes that allowed this have remained mostly unclear. The present study aims to address this question by identifying Coping Action Patterns in survivors’ Holocaust (HN) versus other, pre- and post-Holocaust (ON) narratives. We analyzed 169 thematic units in 20 in-depth interviews with Holocaust survivors using a sequential explanatory mixed-method approach. We found that the proportion of adaptive coping patterns was higher in HN compared to ON, and that the coping category Relatedness, as well as specific individual coping strategies: Self-Reliance, Escape, and Information Seeking occurred more frequently in HN compared to ON, although none of these differences reached statistical significance. A modified interpretative phenomenological approach was used to identify common themes within each coping strategy. The results implicate that maintaining a dual representation of trauma versus regular, non-traumatic autobiographic memories may play a crucial role in the resilience of massive trauma survivors.

摘要

在种族灭绝和战争不断发生的世界中，了解大规模创伤对幸存者的长期心理影响，以及确定提高他们恢复能力的方法至关重要。研究一再证明大屠杀幸存者具有非凡的能力，可以忍受可怕的记忆并且仍然正常工作；然而，导致这种情况发生的防御和应对过程的确切性质大多仍不清楚。本研究旨在通过确定幸存者的大屠杀 (HN) 与其他大屠杀前后 (ON) 叙述中的应对行动模式来解决这个问题。我们使用顺序解释混合方法，在对大屠杀幸存者的 20 次深入访谈中分析了 169 个主题单元。我们发现，与 ON 相比，HN 中适应性应对模式的比例更高，并且应对类别相关性以及特定的个人应对策略：自力更生、逃避和信息寻求在 HN 中比 ON 发生得更频繁，尽管这些差异都没有达到统计显着性。修改后的解释性现象学方法用于确定每个应对策略中的共同主题。结果表明，保持创伤与常规、非创伤性自传记忆的双重表征可能在大规模创伤幸存者的恢复力中发挥关键作用。修改后的解释性现象学方法用于确定每个应对策略中的共同主题。结果表明，保持创伤与常规、非创伤性自传记忆的双重表征可能在大规模创伤幸存者的恢复力中发挥关键作用。修改后的解释性现象学方法用于确定每个应对策略中的共同主题。结果表明，保持创伤与常规、非创伤性自传记忆的双重表征可能在大规模创伤幸存者的恢复力中发挥关键作用。