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When she began interviewingtherapists, one ofSeeley’s first observationswas their struggle to properlylabel their patients’suffering. Existing psychiatriccategories did notfully capture it.Professor Karen Seeleyfrom Marylene Cloitre, a research and clinical psychologistand trauma specialist at NYU. Cloitre brought to the projecta team of psychologists who advised on interview techniquesand provided professional services to subjects and researcherswhen needed. Sometimes, however, their services as therapistswere not wanted. Many interviewees were willing to talk withthe oral historians because they were not psychologists. Clarkcould understand that reaction. “Human suffering precedesand supersedes medical diagnosis. It can’t be fully expressed.”Who Counselsthe Counselors?Practicing psychotherapist and anthropology professor KarenSeeley was not a trauma specialist when she began her 9/11-relatedresearch. In fact, she didn’t want to research September11th at all. “My first instinct was to find some distance.” In2002, however, Columbia sociologist David Stark contactedher. He was completing a study of the response to 9/11 in thecity and wished to include specific occupational groups (seepage 26). He asked if Seeley would be interested in studyingtherapists and their post-9/11 work.When she began interviewing therapists, one of Seeley’sfirst observations was their struggle to properly label theirpatients’ suffering. Existing psychiatric categories did not fullycapture it. “There was a general consensus that [Post-TraumaticStress Disorder (PTSD)] was the closest thing psychiatryhad to offer” in terms of defining what was happening. PTSDrequires the existence of an external event in order to be diagnosed,and 9/11 fit the bill for many New Yorkers. PTSD, however,was not included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manualof Mental Disorders until 1980, and many of the therapistsSeeley was interviewing had no training or experience with it.Before September 11th, few therapists specialized in trauma.Though Seeley thought that “PTSD may not have been themost appropriate way to categorize what people felt after 9/11,therapists started to take crash courses in trauma just to try toget a sense of what it was and how to treat it.”Seeley also found that therapists were struggling with morethan their professional ability to address patient trauma. Theywere struggling with trauma themselves. “I anticipated thattherapists would have processed their personal reactions to9/11. I was surprised to see how desperate many of them wereto talk…about what they were going through [in their personaland professional lives]. They were having very powerful reactionsto their work that they couldn’t quite get a handle on.”For many of the therapists, meeting with Seeley was the firstopportunity they had in over a year to reflect on their own ex-Link back to contents page24 Superscript
periences. They had been working nonstop since 9/11, makingthemselves available to communities and individuals in needsuch as first responders and the newly widowed. Seeley sawthat many therapists had not expected their own distress toescalate when they listened to patients’ stories.This type of professional reaction was new to Seeley.Her previous work had focused on cultural psychotherapy,the study of culture’s influence in therapy and how emotionand cognition vary in different cultural settings. Differencesbetween patient and therapist can provide a buffer betweenthem. “When therapists’ work is emotionally taxing, onething that helps them stay grounded is an awareness of theboundary between themselves and their patients.” This wasnot possible for therapists who lived and worked in New YorkCity and had directly experienced 9/11. The event produced arare instance of simultaneous trauma, where therapists wereharmed by the same event that injured patients.Graphic images that patients described during sessionsstayed in therapists’ minds. Some therapists had sufferedlosses of their own or had offices downtown or near the siteof the attack. Many went to work with the smell of the destructionin the air, walking past missing person flyers. Theexperience began to take a toll. Some suffered fatigue or lackof motivation to listen during sessions, or began to experiencethe same nightmares and fears of their patients. Many decidedagainst going into therapy themselves. “They did not wantto traumatize someone else. They did not want it to spread.”Often, when talking to Seeley, they would censor themselves,sparing her images and details.Research and ResearcherDespite these precautions, Seeley began to experience a formof secondary trauma through her research. During her interviewsin 2002 and 2003 and throughout the writing of herbook—Therapy After Terror: 9/11, Psychotherapists, and MentalHealth (2008)—she “couldn’t get away from 9/11. It really affectedmy perceptions of it.” One day, after interviewing threetherapists, she arrived to interview the fourth and the therapisttold her, “You look traumatized.” It was then that Seeleydecided to slow the pace of her research, allowing herself morespace from the subject. “It was too much to have in my mind.”Clark, too, found the emotional impact of her oral historywork challenging. “I didn’t know how I could be analyticalwhile recording people’s grieving.” She remembers oralhistorian Alessandro Portelli offering her advice. “He said,Superscript 25Link back to contents page
Page 2: CONTENTS1 Message from the Dean2 De
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Page 13 and 14: One concern among doctoral students
Page 15 and 16: “It is perhaps not up to the stud
Page 18 and 19: Link back to contents page16 Supers
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Page 22 and 23: When Intellect MeetsLink back to co
Page 25: the towers collapsed. Furthermore,
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Page 31 and 32: “I became involved to give back t
Page 33 and 34: Alumni interested in connecting (or
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Page 37 and 38: How have you applied your degreewor
Page 39 and 40: After Tobacco: What Would Happen If
Page 41 and 42: DissertationsDepositedRecentlyAnthr
Page 43 and 44: IEOR: Operations ResearchYu Hang Ka
Page 45 and 46: Naira Musallam, Examining thepercei
Page 47 and 48: Professors IOANNIS MYLONOPOU-LOS, A
Page 49 and 50: The GSAS Alumni Association invites
Page 51: Superscript 49Link back to contents

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