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By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on September 21, 2010 

Despite a remarkable track record of resiliency, Holocaust survivors still present various psychiatric symptoms.

The findings come from an analysis of 44 years of global psychological research.

Jewish Holocaust survivors living in Israel also have higher psychological well-being than those who live in other countries, which suggests living in that country could serve as a protective factor.

Researchers from Israel and the Netherlands analyzed Holocaust survivors of Jewish ancestry.

Their findings are published in the American Psychological Association’s Psychological Bulletin.

“Six decades after the end of World War II and we are still learning how a mass genocide like the Holocaust is affecting its victims,” said the study’s lead author, Efrat Barel, PhD, a psychology professor at the Max Stern Academic College of Emek Yezreel in Israel.

“What we’ve found is that they have the ability to overcome their traumatic experiences and even to flourish and gain psychological growth, but it may not be as easy as it seems.”

The central question of this analysis was how the Holocaust affected survivors’ general adjustment, according to Barel. General adjustment levels were determined by examining the participants’ psychological well-being, post-traumatic stress symptoms, cognitive functioning, physical health, stress-related symptoms and psychopathological symptoms.

Read in Full:  http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/09/21/holocaust-pain-persists/18490.html

 

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