ABSTRACT
The thought frequently occurs that the place stricken by a disaster may have something inauspicious about it, that it is a cursed spot. Such a feeling is understandably reenforced by a recurrence of damaging events. The influx of great numbers of “sightseers” into a disaster-stricken area, sometimes to the extent of impeding rescue activities, has been repeatedly observed. On the part of the disaster-stricken population there may be, understandably, some resentment against the sightseers who come to stare at their devastated homes and to question them about their losses. The conflicts over looking at the results of a disaster, and also the difficulties in seeing clearly at the time of impact and immediately afterwards when one looks for loved ones and dreads what one may find, may occasionally lead to emotional disturbances of vision. The impulse to master a trauma by repetition is also operative in the return to the disaster locale.
