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This paper is a part of the authors' monograph, The Child and His Family in Disaster. Vicksburg, Mississippi, was struck by a tornado in 1953 with considerable loss of life, including the death of several children in a motion picture house full of children. The study was initiated by the psychiatrists one week
after the tornado. Three facets of the parent-child reaction were investigated. 1, The reaction of the parent with the child at the time of the impact; 2, communication between parent and child about the disaster; and 3, the parent's responses to the child's behavior following the disaster. While intrapsychic conflicts are important determinants of severe disturbances produced by external stress, the authors believe their evidence points to 'the forces within the family social system' and the role of the individual in that system as significant etiologic factors in individual psychopathology. Psychoanalytic and sociological frames of reference need not be so competitive, but they should also not be forced prematurely into an integrated point of view.