The literature on terrorism and disaster has generally emphasized immediate response. After awhile, however, the people who come to help go home, and savings, insurance, and favors are used up. This article addresses this later period, the long-term effects of trauma, and the roles of outreach and other interventions, at least as they have been experienced in Oklahoma City since the terrorist bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in April 1995. It emphasizes the roles of permission and protection, the co-creation of meanings, individual and cultural scripts, and the transcendence of drama triangle roles and their relatives. The article also addresses the possibility of posttraumatic growth as people grieve for a lost sense of personhood and construct a new one. Finally, it considers the concepts of increasingly complex psychosocial and neurological integration (neuroconstructivism).
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AllenJ. R. (1999). After the bombing: Public scenarios and the construction of meaning. Journal of the Oklahoma State Medical Association, 92(4), 187–192.
2.
AllenJ. R. (2003). Concepts, competencies, and interpretive communities. Transactional Analysis Journal, 33, 126–147.
3.
AllenJ. R.AllenB. A. (1991a). Concepts of transference: A critique, a typology, an alternative hypothesis, and some proposals. Transactional Analysis Journal, 21, 77–91.
4.
AllenJ. R.AllenB. A. (1991b). Towards a constructivist TA. Keynote address at the 29th annual ITAA conference. In LoriaB. R. (Ed.), The Stamford papers: Selections from the 29th annual ITAA conference (pp. 1–22). Madison, WI: Omnipress.
5.
AllenJ. R.AllenB. A. (1997). Of resilience and vulnerability–and a woman who never lived. In AllenJ. R.AllenB. A., Therapeutic journey: Practice and life (pp. 154–174). Oakland, CA: TA Press.
6.
AllenJ. R.AllenB. A. (1998a). Redecision therapy: Through a narrative lens. In HoytM. F. (Ed.), The handbook of constructive therapies (pp. 31–45). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
7.
AllenJ. R.AllenB. A. (1998b). Transactional analysis notes from Oklahoma City: After the bombing. Transactional Analysis Journal. 28, 202–209.
8.
AllenJ. R.BennettS.KearnsL. (2004). Psychological mindedness: A neglected developmental line in permissions to think. Transactional Analysis Journal, 34, 3–9.
9.
AllenJ. R.TuckerP.PfefferbaumB. (2005). Community outreach following a terrorist act: Violent death and the Oklahoma City experience. In RynearsonE. K. (Ed.), Violent death: Resilience and intervention beyond the crisis (pp. 564–580). New York: Routledge.
10.
American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
11.
ChoyA. (1990). The winner's triangle. Transactional Analysis Journal, 20, 40–46. Conspiracy: In the throes of a paranoid nation. (1995, June 22). Oklahoma Gazette..
12.
CornellW. F.HargadenH. (2005). From transactions to relations: The emergence of a relational tradition in transactional analysis. Chadlington, Oxfordshire: Haddon Press.
13.
DregoP. (2006). Freedom and responsibility. Transactional Analysis Journal, 36(1), 90–104.
14.
ErskineR. G.MoursundJ. P.TrautmannR. L. (1999). Beyond empathy: A therapy of contact-in-relationship. Philadelphia, PA: Brunner/Mazel.
15.
FonagyP.SteeleM.SteeleH.HiggitA. (1994). The Emanual Miller memorial lecture 1992: The theory and practice of resilience. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 35(2), 231–257.
16.
FonagyP.TargetM. (1997). Attachment and reflective function: Their role in self-organization. Development and Psychopathology, 9(4), 679–700.
17.
FratesM.AndersonL. (Eds.). (1997). A celebration of the spirit. Oklahoma City, OK: Oklahoma Arts Institute.
18.
HargadenH.SillsC. (2001). Deconfusion of the child ego state: A relational perspective. Transactional Analysis Journal, 31, 55–70.
19.
HersleyJ.TongateL.BurkeB. (2004). Simple truths: The real story of the Oklahoma City bombing investigation. Oklahoma City, OK: Oklahoma Heritage Association.
HolmesJ. (1996). Attachment, intimacy, autonomy: Using attachment theory in adult psychotherapy. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.
22.
HoytM. F. (Ed.). (1998). The handbook of constructive therapies. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
23.
JonesC. (1998,4 August). The blasts' fallout: Rescuers, survivors, still nursing emotional wounds. USA Today, 1A.
24.
JonesR. (1995). Where was God at 9:02 A.M. ?Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.
25.
KalschedD. (1996). The inner world of trauma: Archetypal defenses of the personal spirit. London: Routledge.
26.
KarpmanS. (1968). Fairy tales and script drama analysis. Transactional Analysis Bulletin, 7(26), 39–43.
27.
LawG. C. (2006). Mind, body, soul, and spirit in transactional analysis: An integral approach to relationships. Malvern, UK: Impact.
28.
Le GuernicA. (2004). Fairy tales and psychological life plans. Transactional Analysis Journal, 34, 216–222.
29.
LinenthalE. T. (2001). The unfinished bombing: Oklahoma City in American memory. New York: Oxford University Press.
30.
LoriaB. R. (1991). Integrative family therapy: A constructivist perspective. In LoriaB. R. (Ed.), The Stamford papers: Selections from the 29th annual ITAA conference (pp. 35–41). Madison, WI: Omnipress.
31.
Many Americans think conspiracy involved in Oklahoma City bombing. (1995, August). Gallup Poll Monthly, 211.
32.
McNeelJ. (2005, 29 October). New developments in redecision therapy. Workshop presented at the United States of America Transactional Analysis Association Conference, Nashville, Tennessee.
33.
McNuttM. (2005, 20 April). Dignitaries join survivors, others for ceremony. The Oklahoman, 9A.
34.
NakoneznyP. A.ReddickR.RodgersJ. L. (2004). Did divorces decline after the Oklahoma City bombing?Journal of Marriage & Family, 66(1), 90–100.
35.
NorthC. S.NixonS. J.ShariatS.MalloneeS.McMillenJ. CSpitznagelE. L.SmithE. M. (1999). Psychiatric disorders among survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing. Journal of the American Medical Association, 282, 755–762.
36.
Oklahoma grand jury dismisses theories about bombing. (1998, 31 December). The Washington Post, A18.
37.
PhelpsJ. L.BelskyJ.CrnicK. (1998). Earned security, daily stress, and parenting: A comparison of five alternative models. Development and Psychopathology, 70(1). 21–38.
38.
ProppV. I. A. (1968). Morphology of the folktale. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
39.
RaymondK. (2005, 20 April). April 19, 1995: 10 years later. Oklahoma City changed us all. The Oklahoman.
40.
RizzolattiG.LuppinoG.MatelliM. (1998). The organization of the cortical motor system: New concepts. Electroencephalography & Clinical Neurophysiology, 106(4), 283–296.
41.
RobinsL. N.HeizerJ. E.CottierL.GoldringE. (1989). The diagnostic interview schedule 1 disaster supplement. St. Louis: Washington University.
42.
RobinsonJ. C. (2005, 18 April). Jackson speaks on society's ills. The Oklahoman, 21–22.
43.
RodgersJ. L.St. JohnCColemanR. (In press). Did fertility go up after the Oklahoma City bombing? Analysis of births in metro-political counties in Oklahoma 1990–1999. Demography.
44.
SchoreA. N. (2001). Affect dysregulation and disorders of the self. New York: Norton.
45.
SchoreA. N. (2003). Affect dysregulation and repair of the self. New York: Norton.
46.
SeligmanM. E. P. (2002). Positive psychology, positive prevention, and positive therapy. In SnyderC. R.LopezS. J. (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology (pp. 26–38). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
47.
SeligmanM. E. P.CsikszentmihalyiM. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. American Psychologist, 55(1), 5–14.
48.
SiegelD. J. (2001). Toward an interpersonal neurobiology of the developing mind: Attachment elationships, “mindsight,” and neural integration. Infant Mental Health Journal, 22(1–2), 67–94.
49.
SmithD. W.ChristiansenE. H.VincentR. J.HahnN. E. (1999). Population effects of the Oklahoma City bombing. Journal of the Oklahoma State Medical Association, 92(4), 193–198.
TedeschiR. G.CalhounL. G. (1996). The posttraumatic growth inventory: Measuring the positive legacy of trauma. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 9(3), 455–472.
52.
TodorovT. (1977). The poetics of prose. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
53.
TuckerP. (2003, 12 July). Terrorism: Lessons learned from Oklahoma City. Presented at the Nebraska Mental Health Conference, Omaha, Nebraska.
54.
TuckerP.DicksonW.PfefferbaumB.McDonaldN. B.AllenG. (1997). Traumatic reactions as predictors of posttraumatic stress six months after the Oklahoma City bombing. Psychiatric Services, 48(9), 1191–1194.
55.
TuckerP.PfefferbaumB.NorthC. S.KentA.WyattD. B.HossainA.BurginC. (2004, 14 June). Long-term autonomic reactivity in Oklahoma City's direct victims of terrorism. Paper presented at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Harrogate, United Kingdom.
56.
World Health Organization. (1994). International statistical classification of diseases and related health problems (10th rev.) (Vol. 3). Geneva: Author.
