Unmasking the illusion of safety. Psychic trauma in war
Shaw, J.A.
Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic 51(1): 49-63
1987
ISSN/ISBN: 0025-9284 PMID: 3828616 Document Number: 3312
The author examines psychic trauma and the traumatic situation resulting from exposure to threats of injury and death in the 1982 Lebanon War. Clinical vignettes of Israeli soldiers who became psychiatric casualties focus attention on psychic trauma as an experience that overwhelms three processes: (1) the narcissistic defenses associated with the idealized self, (2) the mechanisms of denial, and (3) the illusion of safety. The author discusses the developmental origins of the illusion of safety, rational and irrational contributions to its configuration, and its importance as a psychological construct in the life of the individual soldier.
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