The growing disaster psychiatry research literature has focused on posttraumatic stress disorder, producing little insight into subjective disaster experience. Qualitative research, especially narrative analysis, may provide in-depth exploration of individual disaster experience and efforts to make meaning of it. Disaster narratives were collected from a random sample of 182 Oklahoma City bombing survivors 6 months after the disaster and again from 141 survivors nearly 1 year later. These narratives were examined for the evolution of recurring themes and their content over time. The content followed a natural time structure, encompassing phases of the bombing experience that were organized into three overarching categories containing individual themes: (a) experience of the bomb blast including themes of sensory experience and cognitions, (b) immediate aftermath including themes of structural damage, helping others, escape and physical injury, and (c) later reflections. The general content and focus of the narratives changed minimally between the baseline and follow-up interviews, but there was considerable compression of detail in the follow-up interviews. Narrative details demonstrating consistency across time may represent the most salient meaning derived from the disaster experience. These findings have potential applicability to therapeutic interventions for working with survivors of terrorism and other disasters.

中文翻译：

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俄克拉荷马城爆炸案的幸存者叙述：随着时间推移的故事

越来越多的灾难精神病学研究文献集中在创伤后应激障碍上，对主观灾难经历的了解很少。定性研究，尤其是叙事分析，可能会提供对个人灾难经历的深入探索，并努力使其有意义。灾难叙述是从灾难发生 6 个月后的 182 名俄克拉荷马城爆炸幸存者的随机样本中收集的，并在近一年后再次从 141 名幸存者中收集。这些叙述被检查了随着时间的推移反复出现的主题及其内容的演变。内容遵循自然的时间结构，包括轰炸体验的各个阶段，这些阶段被组织成三个包含各个主题的总体类别：(a) 炸弹爆炸体验，包括感官体验和认知主题，(b) 直接后果，包括结构损坏、帮助他人、逃生和身体伤害等主题，以及 (c) 之后的反思。在基线访谈和后续访谈之间，叙述的一般内容和重点变化很小，但在后续访谈中对细节进行了相当大的压缩。说明跨时间一致性的叙述细节可能代表了从灾难经历中得出的最突出的含义。这些发现可能适用于与恐怖主义和其他灾难幸存者合作的治疗干预措施。但在后续采访中，细节被压缩得相当厉害。说明跨时间一致性的叙述细节可能代表了从灾难经历中得出的最突出的含义。这些发现可能适用于与恐怖主义和其他灾难幸存者合作的治疗干预措施。但在后续采访中，细节被压缩得相当厉害。说明跨时间一致性的叙述细节可能代表了从灾难经历中得出的最突出的含义。这些发现可能适用于与恐怖主义和其他灾难幸存者合作的治疗干预措施。