Talking about traumatic events: A cross-cultural investigation

Freitag, Simone; Grimm, Anna; Schmidt, Silke

doi:10.5964/ejop.v7i1.104

Cited by 12 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Initially, for analyzing the written texts, we used the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC2007), a software for text analysis based on the number of words belonging to 80 linguistic categories ( Freda, Esposito, & Quaranta, 2015 ; Freitag, Grimm, & Schmidt, 2011 ; Pennebaker et al, 2007 ). The corpus of analysis consisted of 60 transcribed texts (3/subject).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linguistic Markers of Processing Trauma Experience in Women’s Written Narratives During Different Breast Cancer Phases: Implications for Clinical Interventions

2015

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Research into the change processes underlying the benefits of expressive writing is still incomplete. To fill this gap, we investigated the linguistic markers of change in cognitive and emotional processing among women with breast cancer, highlighting the differences and peculiarities during different treatment phases. A total of 60 writings were collected from 20 women: 10 receiving chemotherapy and 10 receiving biological therapy. We performed a series of repeated measures ANOVA for the most meaningful LIWC linguistic categories, including positive/negative emotions and cognitive processes, to assess change over three sessions. Results demonstrated a significant increase in the positive emotions category for the entire group of women, with particular relevance for the biological therapy group of women, and a marginally significant (p = .07) greater use of words indicating cognitive processes for women receiving biological therapy. For the negative emotions category time was significant for the whole group of women, showing a peak of use in the second session of writing. Peculiar differences in the linguistic markers of processing trauma were observed between the two groups. Although the writing intervention is a support for both groups of women, it seems to be beneficial when there is a large time gap since the administration of chemotherapy and, thus, when the patient can revisit the experience. The relationship of the illness with life can be rearticulated, and the writing becomes a space for resignifying the traumatic cancer experience.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linguistic Markers of Processing Trauma Experience in Women’s Written Narratives During Different Breast Cancer Phases: Implications for Clinical Interventions

2015

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“…Therefore, the narrative of traumatic experiences assumes the function of reconstructing the story of the continuity of life, including the personal story context, consolidating the interruption of time and creating a new connection between the continuity and discontinuity of the experience. This constructs a meaning that bridges the past, present, and future (Freitag, Grimm, & Schmidt, 2011; Hydén, 1997; Murray, 2007). …”

Section: Breast Cancer Narrative and Temporalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Meaning-making process related to temporality during breast cancer traumatic experience: The clinical use of narrative to promote a new continuity of life

Martino

Freda

2016

Eur. J. Psychol.

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Previous research has agreed that meaning-making is a key element in the promotion of patients’ well-being during and after a traumatic event such as cancer. In this paper, we focus on an underestimated key element related to the crisis/rupture of this meaning-making process with respect to the time perspective. We consider 40 narratives of breast cancer patients at different times of treatment, undergoing chemotherapy and biological therapy. We collected data through writing technique. We performed an interpretative thematic analysis of the data and highlighted specific ways to signify time during the different treatment phases. Our central aspect “the time of illness, the illness of time” demonstrates that the time consumed by illness has the risk of becoming an illness of time, which transcends the end of the illness and absorbs a patient’s past, present, and future, thus saturating all space for thought and meaning. The study suggests that narrative can become a therapeutic and preventive tool for women with breast cancer in a crisis of temporality, and enable the promotion of new semiotic connections and a specific functional resynchronization with the continuity/discontinuity of life. This is useful during the illness and medical treatment and also after the treatment.

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“…Ernest Renan's famous quote state that "getting its history wrong is part of being a nation", but the reality shows this to be at the same time a barrier to the rebirth of a nation, coexistence and reconciliation for a peaceful future. In order to investigate people's perceptions about traumatic events, is important to look at the narratives about traumatic events (Smyth, Hockemeyer, & Tulloch, 2008;Smyth, True, & Souto, 2001; as cited in Freitag, Grimm & Schmidt, 2011). Living peacefully in a post conflict environment is a crucial and difficult task.…”

Section: Toward Healingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cyprus: From an Argued Past to a Shared Future

Zeka¹

2015

EJSD

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Most individuals face traumatic events during their lifetime, but when entire groups of people are trapped inside the width and breadth of a horrific atrocity, their experiences can also become a shared or "collective trauma." If an aim of conflict analysis scholars is to contribute to a sustained and peaceful resolution, the psychological and social impact of violence -upon the individual as well as the community -must be broadly examined and synthesized into future strategies and recommendations. The island of Cyprus is home to one of the longest standing and intractable conflicts since the establishment of the United Nations. Its history includes forced occupation, invasion, being traded, and betrayed. There have been military coupes, unilateral decision makers, and aggressive military interventions. Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots have their own historical, fixed, and salient collective trauma. It is a stubborn memory; one that appears and reappears as an old and unhealed wound. The aim of this qualitative study is three-fold: (1) to elucidate the role and effect of opposing Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot trauma narratives upon the peace process; (2) to examine the dialectic exacerbation between the two narratives; and (3) to explore how these narratives have been transmitted to new generations. This research is especially focused on how collective trauma narratives shape perceptions, but at the same time, how they shape social identity, and perceptions of the self. Through a comparison of conflict narratives, this study elaborates on how invalidated or unresolved collective trauma can serve as an insidious source of distrust, enemy imaging, a clash of identities among parties, and how it can also serve to justify each party's actions and reactions. Also, the research aims to explore specific ways the people of Cyprus might be able to move forward from their argued and vehemently opposed understandings of the past, toward a more shared and cohesive future.

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Talking about traumatic events: A cross-cultural investigation

Cited by 12 publications

References 30 publications

Linguistic Markers of Processing Trauma Experience in Women’s Written Narratives During Different Breast Cancer Phases: Implications for Clinical Interventions

Linguistic Markers of Processing Trauma Experience in Women’s Written Narratives During Different Breast Cancer Phases: Implications for Clinical Interventions

Meaning-making process related to temporality during breast cancer traumatic experience: The clinical use of narrative to promote a new continuity of life

Cyprus: From an Argued Past to a Shared Future

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