Traumatic Poverty

TRAUMA AND POVERTY—both are real scourges of mankind. During the last four decades or so, attention to the immediate and long-term consequences of terrible, extraordinarily stressful events has very much increased. The psychosocial aspects of such events have been conceptualized. In this context, a traumatic event [Page 1074]is defined as an extraordinary event or a series of events that is sudden, overwhelming, and often dangerous, either to one's self or to significant other(s). It can be added that it is an event that harms nearly everybody severely. So it is quite normal that people develop during such a catastrophe the so-called traumatic stress reaction, which can be defined as a set of conscious and unconscious actions and emotions associated with dealing with the stressors of the catastrophe and the period immediately afterward.

Currently, there are only short definitions of traumatic events and the normal human reactions during such events. Before speaking about the psychological disorders that may result from traumatic events, we must outline what poverty means today. Poverty in developed countries such as France or Germany means something else than poverty in the so-called Third World, where often the basic needs cannot be satisfied. In places such as Germany, the social network can solve problems like malnutrition and homelessness. So in the developed countries it is reasonable to use a relative concept of poverty. In this context, poverty means that a household gets half of the household-size adjusted median income of the society. At first sight, it is noticeable that poverty is defined only as lack of material goods, whereas in the context of development aid, usually poverty is regarded as a more extensive problem.

In this context, poverty is defined as a function of capability deprivation, a lack of capacity that inhibits participation in well-being. This includes an income above some artificial minimum, but also access to a healthcare system, to education, and to long-term security or satisfaction of the basic needs, like shelter and nutrition. This comprehension of poverty paves the way to recognizing a connection between a traumatic event and the creation of poverty.

It is obvious that world-renowned catastrophes like tsunamis, earthquakes, and armed conflicts create both psychological problems and poverty. The psychological problems can be conceptualized as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which is defined by R.M. Goldenson in the following way: “An anxiety disorder produced by an uncommon, extremely stressful event (e.g. assault, rape, military combat, flood, earthquake, death camp, torture, car-accident, head traumas and characterized by a) reexperiencing the trauma in painful recollections or recurrent dreams or nightmares, b) diminished responsiveness (emotional anesthesia or numbing) with disinterest in significant activities and with such feelings of detachment and estrangement from others, and c) such symptoms as exaggerated startle response, disturbed sleep, difficulty in concentrating or remembering, guilt about surviving when others did not, and avoidance of activities that call the traumatic event to mind.”

This generally accepted definition of PTSD shows that poverty may be part of the cause of the “extremely stressful event” when people lose everything in one sudden moment (earthquake, fire, flood); in this sense poverty is traumatic. Poverty can also be traumatic in the sense of being a result of both—namely of the traumatic event itself and the psychological disorder named PTSD too.

...