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differently from those of adults; children’s play, in particular, can express what they
don’t understand to be flashbacks (DSM IV Text Revision).
Behaviours commonly found in trauma victims include the avoidance of activities and
thoughts associated with the trauma, avoidance of social activities, inability to have
loving feelings, feelings of detachment from others, a diminished interest in significant
activities, and a sense of a foreshortened future expressed as a lack of expectation of
a long life, intimate relationships, children or career (DSM IV Text Revision). Many of
these traits were observed in the trauma victims who participated in this research.
A trauma victim’s increased arousal responses inhibit the ability to relax and feel
comfortable in their surrounds and with other people. The lived experience of these
disturbances, which include difficulty in sleeping, irritability and anger, difficulty in
concentration, hyper-vigilance and an exaggerated startle response, imposes a high
toll on victims’ health, their ability to participate in work and leisure, and their
relationships. Extreme trauma responses affect all aspects of the survivor’s being;
they prevent full participation in relationships with individuals, family and the broader
community, as well as compromising their sense of meaning. Many people who have
experienced trauma have suicidal thoughts as they struggle to find purpose in
continued existence. The ability to self-protect is often severely compromised and
potentially leads to further victimisation (van der Kolk, McFarlane and Weisaeth;
Baker).
Trauma is known to spread outwards into the family and community and inwards from
the broader society to the family or individual. Supporting this view is the considerable
research done with second and third generation Holocaust survivors that reveals that
subsequent generations of trauma victims also bear the scars of that trauma. Jay
Winter, Jill Bennett (Empathic Vision), Paul Valent, George Halasz and Ruth Kluger,
some of whom are child survivors of the Holocaust, describe the effects of trauma,
such as poor relationship skills and depression, being passed from one generation to
the next. The knowledge that the trauma has the potential to be ongoing unless
addressed provides additional motivation to equip survivors with the tools to construct
a meaningful life post-trauma.
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