When we experience loss, the event has an impact on us as individuals and also on our society. Recognizing social and individual grief and knowing about the process will help us cope with these feelings
Natural disasters such as floods, accidents and traumatic events such as ethnic or religious persecution and violence can threaten a person's physical and spiritual integrity. This kind of event is very difficult for an individual to cope with and comprehend. But the society around that individual, which functions together as a living organism, can also be hit hard and require some time to digest social suffering.
Social trauma
Social traumas can affect all segments of society that witness these events directly or indirectly, not just those who have been subjected to the trauma. Therefore, in such cases, the general community experiences feelings such as horror, helplessness, insecurity, pain, loss, anger, isolation or alienation.
Social trauma can shake society's self-perception, that is, its values, traditions and customs, its accepted beliefs in moral and human consciousness, and its perception and worldview of other communities. It deconstructs the bond between individuals and subgroups of a community.
Individual mourning after natural disasters
"Death is the most tangible and most painful of losses. In our reactions to death, we unwittingly coexist with the remnants of our deconstructed, imposed or rushed divisions in our past in our subconscious. Mourning is not just a response to death. Mourning is the psychological response we give to any subduction or change and the compromises we make so that we can adapt between our inner world and reality. " says Dr. Vamik Volkan, an emeritus professor of psychiatry at the University of Virginia.
When a loved one dies, a person puts together their loved one's positive and negative characteristics and creates a representation of them in his mind. They add some of the characteristics of the person they love to their self, and creates a representation of themselves in their mind. Therefore, in your inner world, there are both representations of yourself and representations of the persons you love. In other words, your self and the other person are intertwined. Mourning means accepting that the loved one is dead, and this process allows you to separate your self and the other.
The mourning process
Mourning means slowing down the relationship with the representation of the loved one in the mind; in other words, it means saying goodbye in peace. The healthy farewell process is as follows: