The psychological damage of guns The psychological effects of guns may go well beyond what some woul

http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/blog/moffic/content/article/10168/2131033

When insight-oriented psychotherapy stalls, the therapist usually assumes that there are some powerful, often unconscious, forces opposing examination and change. Has there been a parallel process ever since the Martin Luther King, Jr, and Robert Kennedy assassinations prompted gun reform? It is yet unclear whether the overwhelming shock of Newtown (which I focused on in an earlier blog),2 where vulnerable children were killed by yet another mass murderer, will galvanize action not only to prevent future mass murderers, but also to finally reduce the public health and mental health risks of more chronic, common, and routine gun violence in America.

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The psychological damage of guns
The psychological effects of guns may go well beyond what some would call a normal degree of security, belonging, freedom, self-esteem, and power. It can go well beyond those killed, to the ripple effects on those physically and psychologically injured, or even just threatened, by guns.

There is the grief, normal and abnormal, of the loved ones of those killed by guns. There is the potential PTSD of those not killed, but injured by guns. There is the potential PTSD of those witnessing the violence, so common in public places. Self-medicating for these psychological wounds is common, but has the potential drawback of disinhibiting barely controlled anger. I experienced all of these, often in a prison setting, where below the bravado lay the pain of childhood exposure to violent trauma, often gun-related, especially in African-American males, released in crime and/or substance abuse.

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