How Memorials Can Help Cope With PTSD

Naman Magan Bhatnagar

Additional Blog Post 

             How do psychologists deal with the mental illness of grieving nation during war? What happens if the majority of a population requires support, but don’t have it? This blog aims to show how memorials can help cope with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in light of instances of mass-violence. This shall be done by (1) introducing what memorials are, (2) understanding the scope and relevance of PTSD, and (3) understanding how the act of memorialising helps populations cope with PTSD.

A memorial is defined as something “that keeps remembrance alive” (Merriam Webster, 2019). This often focuses on deceased people or events of historical importance and can be found cross-culturally. Japan, for example, preserves the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park because it marks the only structure left standing after the first atomic bomb was dropped over it (UNESCO). Similarly, the US preserves the Vietnam Veterans Memorial as a token of respect to value the lives lost in the Vietnam War (Washington.org).

PTSD is a clinical disorder that manifests as a reaction to a traumatic event “such as a natural disaster, a serious accident, a terrorist act, war/combat, rape or other violent personal assault” (American Psychology Association, 2019). The APA suggests one in every 11 people shall experience PTSD in their lifetime in the US. Further, according to the US Department of Veterans Affairs, PTSD affects adults, children, teens, and women alike (US Department of Veterans Affairs, 2019). This makes PTSD a significant disorder to study in order to formulate effective coping mechanisms. Eiko I. Fried conducted a study (n=2782) that determined that the phenomenon is cross-culturally applicable as well (Fried, 2018). “The particular strengths of the study are its clinical, multisite, and transcultural nature and that we cover a broad spectrum of trauma patients in terms of clinical severity and trauma types” (Fried, 2018). Fried made the data necessary to fully reproduce his analyses public lending credence to his results of cross-cultural applicability. Let’s now explore why it’s important to address PTSD early on.

A study conducted by Andrew J Smith helps us identify key factors in PTSD that cause it to create long-term mental health issues. According to Smith, PTSD caused by mass violence reduces one’s self-efficacy and disrupt one’s world view. Here, self-efficacy is measured by “how capable you are of controlling your emotions” (Smith, 2015) and one’s world view refers to “one’s sense of meaning and justice in the world” (Smith, 2015). As a result of reduced self-efficacy and a disrupted world-view, the severity of PTSD detected within 3-4 months of a traumatic event can explain and even predict post-traumatic stress felt up to a year later. Though his study was conducted among college students (n=704) who lost close friends, acquaintances, and/or teachers in campus shootings, his results predicted 61% of the variance in grief severity 1 year after the shooting (Smith, 2015). This means that if someone or something were to help repair a PTSD patient’s world view & self-efficacy, one could help reduce the long-term effects of a traumatic event in one’s life. Jeffrey L. Durbin contends that memorials do just that.

Memorials help “bind the wounds” (Durbin, 2003) of past traumatic events such as war. According to Durbin, memorials are an ancient technique of expressing one’s mourning that helps “even strangers…come to terms with these tragedies” (Durbin, 2003). This indicates that monuments can help multiple people mourn and process their emotions about a traumatic event at once. Additionally, monuments needn’t only take ‘permanent examples’. According to Durbin, makeshift monuments also prove to be valuable coping mechanisms (Durbin, 2003). This notion of ‘coming to grips’ (Durbin, 2003) with one’s trauma mirrors the idea of increasing one’s self-efficacy which Smith analysed in his study. Smith suggests that increased self-efficacy “facilitates the cognitive processing of traumatic events” (Smith, 2015). Therefore, the act of memorialising can act as a coping mechanism for large populations grieving together.

Moreover, memorials also help repair the world views of PTSD patients. Korea for instance built the 5.18 Memorial Park to commemorate the Gwangju Uprising to serve as a reminder of those hundreds who lost their lives “in a struggle for democracy and human rights”  (Korean Resource Centre, 2019) during a period when justice seemed unattainable. Similarly, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, US, serves as a tribute to those soldiers who lost their lives in the line of duty helping soldiers trudge on knowing efforts won’t be in vain (US Department of Veterans Affairs, 2019). This, as a result, helps populations restore some sense of justice thereby improving their world view.

In conclusion, during times when the majority is grieving, the act of memorialising can help those suffering from PTSD increase their self-efficacy and help restore a sense of justice to their world view. This, in turn, helps patients cope with their PTSD and prevent further long-term mental health issues from rising.

References

American Psychology Association. (2019, April 7). What Is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder? Retrieved from American Psychology Association: https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/ptsd/what-is-ptsd

Durbin, J. L. (2003). EXPRESSIONS OF MASS GRIEF AND MOURNING: The Material Culture of Makeshift Memorials. Material Culture, Vol. 35, No. 2 (FALL 2003), pp. 22-47.

Fried, E. I. (2018). Replicability and Generalizability of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Networks: A Cross-Cultural Multisite Study of PTSD Symptoms in Four Trauma Patient Samples. Association For Psychological Science, 1-17.

Korean Resource Centre. (2019, April 7). May 18th Gwangju People's Uprising. Retrieved from Korean Resource Centre: https://krcla.org/en/history/may18

Merriam Webster. (2019, April 4). Memorial Definition. Retrieved from Merriam Webster Dictionary: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/memorial

Smith, A. J. (2015). Persistent Grief in the Aftermath of Mass Violence: The Predictive Roles of Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms, Self-Efficacy, and Disrupted Worldview. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, Vol. 7, No. 2, 179–186.

US Department of Veterans Affairs. (2019, April 7). PTSD: National Center for PTSD. Retrieved from US Department of Veterans Affairs: https://www.ptsd.va.gov/understand/common/index.asp