ABSTRACT
Traumatic events produce extreme fear and horror and significantly disrupt feelings of security. From an attachment theory perspective, trauma overwhelms our internal coping capacities leading to increased proximity seeking of those people can rely on, usually those people perceive to be stronger and wiser. A traumatic event is understood as an experience that involves the direct or indirect threat to one's life or physical integrity and that causes extreme terror or horror. A trauma may be an acute one-time event or a sustained occurrence, as in the case of combat or terrorism. With the range of potential traumas being so broad, it should come as no surprise that experiencing a traumatic event is not uncommon. People expect that the psychological impact of terrorism might be similar to that of other traumas. In order to formulate the potential psychological impact of terrorism, people should first consider how terrorism differs from traditionally defined traumas.
