ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author shows how disaster psychiatrists should be self-reflective to give attention to meaning, empathy, and self-care and to answer the questions that he has posed. He demonstrates that disasters dramatically confront us with matters of chance and the significance of human connections and attachment in the face of death. The author describes that the devastation and death caused by disaster affirms life. He illustrates these three points by describing some of his experiences as a disaster psychiatrist, as well as relating his close encounter with death as a volunteer fire-fighter. A psychiatrist need not be a specialist in disaster psychiatry to provide care for the individuals who experience these “quiet” traumatic events. Psychiatrists treat the survivors of such events in hospital emergency rooms or their offices when these individuals develop mental disorders. Disaster psychiatry adds an outreach dimension consisting of screening for those at risk and providing very early interventions.
