@article{ref1,
title="Do South African former detainees experience post-traumatic stress? Circumventing the demand characteristics of psychological assessment",
journal="Transcultural psychiatry",
year="2004",
author="Kagee, Ashraf",
volume="41",
number="3",
pages="323-336",
abstract="Most research on persons subjected to physical or psychological torture for political reasons has framed this experience as traumatic, with the sequelae approximating the diagnostic criteria of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Yet, critiques of the trauma model have called attention to the fact that PTSD represents a Western conceptualization of the concerns of persons who have survived stressful experiences. In order to determine whether symptoms of traumatization are salient psychiatric phenomena for South African former detainees, semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 20 respondents who were detained and tortured for political reasons during the apartheid era. Interviews were transcribed and analysed for thematic content using a grounded theory approach. Results showed that although the main concerns expressed were unrelated to traumatization, participants also indicated that they experienced symptoms of post-traumatic stress. These data suggest that although too great a focus on traumatic responses may be misplaced, it remains important to consider the possibility that former detainees may exhibit symptoms of this nature. Consequently, critiques of the trauma discourse as a Western phenomenon need to be tempered with evidence of the lived reality of psychological sequelae experienced by this population.<p /><p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1363-4615",
doi="",
url="http://dx.doi.org/"
}