Children in War Zones, in Genocides and Living with the Threat of Terror

When considering children in armed conflict, it is difficult to make generalizations, because the age of a child, more specifically, his/her level of psychological development makes a difference in the psychological consequences of potentially traumatic experiences. But probably of greatest significance for further development, and living a satisfying adult life, are the life experiences prior to the traumatic events: did the child live in a supportive, loving family so that he/she could have developed a sturdy, resilient self or had the child lived all his life with abuse and/or indifference and never knew peace either in the home or in the society in which he/she had lived? This point is clearly stated in the article by Boia Efraime Jr and Antoinette Errante who, after arguing convincingly that recovery following the ordeal is best achieved within an accepting community, close their article with the following statement: “…bearing in mind the subjective dimension of the trauma, and the fact that each child and youngster had lived his or her own war, each supposition of psychic elaboration presented at the discussion of cases is only a suggestion, which the therapist and the client are free to reject” (emphasis added). In other words, while integration or re-integration into the community is one of the therapeutic aims, recovery still depends on an individual's unique psychology.

However, few research projects and clinical observations in this area could pay close attention to individual differences. Generalizations are still useful as mental health workers are greatly helped by reports in which psychologists trained in the West bring their clinical know-how, their empathy and openness to cultural differences to describe and interpret the tragic fate of children caught in long-term violence in so many countries around the world.

Across the two volumes of this journal, the articles describe a great variety of experiences the children were exposed to: the differences ex