What made you choose a career in trauma research?
My mother was in Auschwitz. That has shaped my career, my choice of field. I was very close to my mother. She was one of the very few survivors who talked about her experiences.
How do you characterise a traumatic event?
Any event that puts someone in danger of death or serious injury. Most people exposed to traumatic events cope in an effective way, even though they may feel upset by it. A traumatic response, on the other hand, entails a collapse of the coping mechanism, when someone is flooded by anxiety. The most conspicuous outcome of this is post-traumatic stress disorder. People with PTSD experience continuous trauma. Despite the fact that the traumatic event is over – the war has finished and they have been reunited with their family – they still feel they are experiencing it. This can take the form ...
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