Disasters, History of

Disasters have always been part of human experience, the adversities that are inevitable in life. The word disaster, “ill starred,” implies great misfortune, catastrophe on a grand scale, although more personal disasters may also affect individuals. Historical accounts have drawn together accounts of specific disasters such as earthquakes, floods, great storms, fires, and other outcomes of forces of nature. Pestilence, plague, and disease have been classed as disasters, through the deaths they bring and the fear they generate. Implicit in such events are deaths and destruction at a level that overwhelms the resources of individuals and communities. There are many sources of disaster. The disasters of war and conflict have grown—for many reasons. With the technological advances of society, human-made disasters have been added—the result of accidents, neglect, or intentional destruction. Such disasters range from incidents involving collapse of structures; transport system accidents; industrial chemical effects such as the toxic gas release at Bhopal, India, in 1984; and nuclear reactor incidents such as the Chernobyl disaster of 1986. Terrorism in its multiple forms constitutes a further source of disaster. Disasters may bring acute, severe, and shocking threats, as with the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear hazard in Japan in 2011. Or they may be prolonged, as with drought, famine, and disease. For disasters such as floods and cyclones, there may be some warning, with opportunities to prepare and protect people and property; others may come without warning, as with recent earthquakes.

Increasingly, disasters have become more complex, with potential to affect large populations and inflict extensive harm and damage on people, communities, and infrastructure. In the historical sense, their impact is greatest when they affect large populations, when they cause greater destruction, or when their threat and destruction are extended over time.

The focus for trauma researchers rests historically in the recognition of the psychological effects of the stressors inherent in disasters and how the understanding of their traumatic effects has evolved overtime. Disasters have been known for the deaths and damage they cause, since the earliest times of human evolution. But making meaning of them has developed beyond the perception of them as acts of God, forces outside the control of individuals, such as “karma” or fate. The science of natural disaster ecology, the surveillance of pandemics, the security strategies of counterterrorism, and many other initiatives have provided some capacity to protect against the adverse effects of disaster although by their very nature, they are always to some degree beyond human control.

How disasters are understood and responded to by human populations has increasingly become a source of scientific interest, research, record, and testimony. Although myth, legend, and belief are still powerful themes, social, psychological, epidemiological, and biological studies have increasingly informed understanding and response. Among these studies, trauma, in the psychosocial and cultural sense, has been a major focus. If war is considered a disaster, as indeed it is at every level, whether fought for just or other causes, then perhaps the earliest [Page 210]recognition of trauma in the psychological sense is represented in the wounds of battle.

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