Trauma Still Flowing in the Gulf:

Today on NPR, there was a story called: BP Oil Well Capped, ButTrauma Still Flowing: More than 1/3 of coastal residents are experiencinganger, anxiety & depression.http://n.pr/hjXZFi

While I'm not surprised at this, I wonder how many of the general public are? How aware are we (all) as a general rule of trauma going on in various parts of the world? Do we avoid thinking about it as a general rule? Is the voice of the land and the environment (eco- translates as "home" in Greek) crying out all the time yet we have mastered the capacity to block it? I also wonder what the documented research shows (or would show) about trauma experienced as a result of natural disasters versus those that are man-made. Does anyone know of research done on this topic?

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Lynn Marie Hynes November 30, 2010 at 10:12am

Bonnie, funny that you bring this up. Over the holiday, I had a lively discussion with a few people about this very topic. We were talking about how the Gulf "spill" has fallen into the unconscious of most people as if this body of water and surrounding life is just fine and experiencing no residual effects. One of the men in the discussion was from the South. He compared the Gulf tragedy to Hurricane Katrina where, after a brief period of time, the residents were forgotten. When another media event captures the attention of the public, we move on to that as if it never happened.

It would be a topical, if not fascinating, dissertation topic to contrast/compare the phenomenology of a natural disaster vs. a man-created disaster (as if man is not part of nature, but you get my point). I am not aware of any studies or empirical work on this subject, but my hunch is that the residents of New Orleans are suffering from depression, anxiety, and remain angry just as the residents of the Gulf region are today. Thank you for sharing this most provocative topic.

happened.it

World Events Timeline
- Bonnie Bright > Lynn Marie Hynes December 1, 2010 at 2:28pm
  
  Thanks for your comments, Lynn. I would be tempted to think that people in Alaska who have been dealing with the Exxon Valdez spill for two decades are still traumatized as well, not to mention all the other places where the environment has been severely damaged or destroyed. Of course a place/event like Chernobyl comes to mind, but there are oil spills and toxic spills regularly around the world that we often don't hear much about from American media.
  
  Interesting and poignant topic to think about the how the lives and psyches of people in the imminent space are affect for years-and probably generations--to come. If memories live in our DNA and are passed down over generations, imagine what is beginning to accumulate around the world from manmade disasters over the past hundred years or so...
- Lynn Marie Hynes > Bonnie Bright December 1, 2010 at 2:46pm
  
  There was a woman who joined our cohort last spring who is focusing her dissertation on the Exxon Valdez tragedy and writing about the psychological aftermath. We discussed her topic at length because the Gulf spill had just begun. She had actually done her fieldwork in Valdez and she testified to the trauma that these remaining residence still hold. All of the residents of Valdez have filed bankruptcy and two of the past mayors have taken their their own lives out of despair over what happened in their (formerly) pristine waters. She told me that sardine fishing (I believe) was the center of their livelihoods and the sardine population has NEVER replenished the bay.

Ecopsychology

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