Posttraumatic Growth: a Brief Review

Cultural and anthropological data suggest that experiences of extreme, traumatic events usually elicit some reactions (symptoms) that may be considered universal. In other words, most people, belonging to different cultures and subcultures, experiencing such vexing situations develop, in the short and sometimes in the long run, approximately the same reactions: intense fear, helplessness, horror; nightmares; intrusive thoughts of the event; emotional numbing, difficulties in concentration, hyper-vigilance, etc. Mythologies and history abound in examples of different forms of intense suffering. Interestingly, records mostly relate of two major types of long-term outcomes resulting from such experiences: long lasting impaired functioning (succumbing) and what is metaphorically called “rebirth”. The first identified record of possibly pathological impairment is Homer’s description of Achilles’ reactions of grief summing up almost all of the symptoms of what later on have become to constitute Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).