Introduction

This chapter presents a framework for understanding trauma. Life events such as retirement, children leaving home, death of a loved one, and other stressful events served as triggers that accelerated and unmasked latent Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The neurobiological study of Holocaust survivors provides evidence that the biological abnormalities in younger PTSD patients persist in elderly survivors. Human beings are limited in their ability to empathize with other people's traumata. Survivors often display external markers of success, example, occupational achievement or establishing families that in truth represent survival strategies. Clearly, these accomplishments may facilitate adaptation and produce feelings of fulfillment in many survivors. Perhaps this has been evolutionally necessary to cope and survive. International action has been more possible in cases where the action has been aimed at the transnational effects of disasters, including man-made disasters. Refugees are just one category of victims of man-made disasters.