Pressed from within to relive the horrors suffered during a far-reaching catastrophe, a community and its constituents are drawn to endless replays of scenes of predation in exchanges with other groups as well as in the transactions among themselves. Frequently, children of survivors are coerced role players in skits redolent of the catastrophe: not only are they subject to emotional contagion from the terrors engraved on parents, they also are targets of their parents' imperative demands.

For the community and survivors, these repetitions are attempts to discharge guilt, escape grief, express hate, magically start life