Citation

Everly GSJ. Int. Rev. Psychiatry 2021; 33(8): 663-667.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/09540261.2022.2031633

PMID

35412421

Abstract

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness …Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it' (Santayana, 1905, p. 172). Indeed, true innovation is most appreciated and most valuably constructed only in the context of that which has come before. Let us not forget the admonition of futurist Alvin Toffler who argued that if we do not shape the future, we shall be forced to passively endure it. This special issue of the International Review of Psychiatry will focus on the field of disaster mental health. In this issue, we will begin with a look at the foundations of the past before reviewing select innovations that may help shape the future.

In all of human experience there may be no more formidable force to alter the future than that of disaster. It does not have to be an event with the magnitude of the Chicxulub asteroid to change history. 'A disaster is the consequence of an extraordinary event that destroys goods, kills people, produces physical or psychological harm but, above all, which overcomes the adaptive possibilities of the social group. Disasters have strong political background and consequences. They shake the life of a community and raise questions about safety, social organisation and the meaning of life' (López-Ibor, 2006, p. 171). More specifically, and with regard to disasters and mental health, the implications are staggering, 'Mental health has large intrinsic value as it relates to the core of what makes us human, thus anything that threatens the mental health of large numbers of people threatens the core fabric of society itself'...

Language: en