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Assessing the Ongoing Psychological Impact of Terrorism

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Handbook of Clinical Rating Scales and Assessment in Psychiatry and Mental Health

Part of the book series: Current Clinical Psychiatry ((CCPSY))

Abstract

The terror attacks of 9/11/2001 dealt a serious blow to the sense of security, well-being, and economic stability of Americans, and altered the mental health landscape for those within the United States and other parts of the world. Paralleling this, new threats to emotional and psychological well-being have materialized in the form of anticipatory, prospective fears of future terrorist attacks. In light of this evolving environment, the present chapter seeks to augment the current science by presenting an assessment paradigm relevant to terrorist events specifically. This approach to psychological assessment expands on current models which focus on the impact of discrete events by also evaluating the impact of prospective fears of future attacks. Reflecting this paradigm shift, we introduce the Terrorism Catastrophizing Scale (TCS) as a means of evaluating the ongoing impact of terrorism on psychological functioning.

At present the psychological science needed to provide proper and effective treatment for victims of horrendous events such as September 11… simply does not exist.

Bruce Bongar [1]

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Psychological Evaluation and Research Laboratory (the PEaRL), Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, One Bowdoin Square 7th floor, Boston, MA, 02114, USA

    Samuel J. Sinclair

  2. Department of Psychology, Suffolk University, Boston, MA, 02114, USA

    Alice LoCicero Ph.D., A.B.P.P., M.B.A

  3. Center for Multicultural Mental Health, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA

    Alice LoCicero Ph.D., A.B.P.P., M.B.A

Authors
  1. Samuel J. Sinclair
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  2. Alice LoCicero Ph.D., A.B.P.P., M.B.A
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Samuel J. Sinclair .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital Harvard Medical School, One Bowdoin Square, Boston, MA, 02114, USA

    Lee Baer  & Mark A. Blais  & 

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Sinclair, S.J., LoCicero, A. (2009). Assessing the Ongoing Psychological Impact of Terrorism. In: Baer, L., Blais, M.A. (eds) Handbook of Clinical Rating Scales and Assessment in Psychiatry and Mental Health. Current Clinical Psychiatry. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-387-5_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-387-5_13

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  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-58829-966-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-59745-387-5

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