332- Book -PTSD therapy & victims of violence (Ochberg) (4)

This blog entry still relates to the book's second section, entitled The Victim of a violent crime.
In view of the content of chapters 6-8, I had opted to split this section so those who didn't wish to read about their difficult aspects could skip straight to this one.

However, the next two chapters both contain their own type of possible trigger warnings. 

These are:

9) Post-traumatic therapy for children who are victims of violence
10) Homicide of a child

Chapter 9, by Carol T. Mowbray, raises the then-limited case studies, literature and psychological knowledge about children victims' possible differences with those of adults, and thus present an overview of the current - to 1988's standards - knowledge, literature and case studies.

These are limited in scope and often have contradictory results, but the author presents nonetheless possible conclusions and age-differences in children who were victims, as to their developmental levels in several forms :

Those of cognitive, moral, coping and defense mechanisms, reactions to grief and mourning. 
Then, she discusses the literature review, severity  and typesof problems by age - with a table of common victim reactions by age groupings : preschool, school age, and adolescents.

The last part of this chapter presents possible conclusions in terms of :
Relationship of child victim problems to adult victim trauma, treatment implications, and prevention.

This chapter covers pages  196-212, whilst pages 210-212 presents a summary and references. 

10) Homicide of a child, is a short chapter, due to the lack of research about the subject in the mid-1980's. It was written by Edward K. Rynearson. He describes the few noted differences in the kind of PTSD experienced by parents who bereave their murdered, or disappeared child. 
Evidently, this is a case where the person/s who survived are the ones who experience PTSD, as the victim isn't there anymore. There is an added aspect of anger towards the perpetrator, at least until retribution, but doesn't always stop at that time. 

Anxiety and PTSD types of hyper-vigilance and avoidance can last a lifetime.

The author also discusses the fact that a therapist shouldn't expect these parents to stop their attachment to their child, even though he or she is dead. Instead, the therapist must concentrate on helping the sufferers to recover as much of as possible, within the limits of their care giving nature that has been interrupted and changed radically. 

This chapter runs pages 213-224, whilst 223-224 include references. 

This ends the book's second section.