Questioning western assessment of trauma among tibetan torture survivors : a quantitative assessment study with comments from buddhist Lamas
Our study falls in line with the numerous studies providing a critique of the use of western diagnostic instruments for assessing trauma in a crosscultural context. Our purpose has been to give evidence for the Tibetan torture survivors' degree of traumatisation and for their use of spirituality to overcome their difficult situation. In addition, we wanted to question the use of our western methods in an Asian context.
Author: Elsass, Peter | Carlsson, Jessica | Jespersen, Kristian | Phuntsok, Kalsang
RCT Author (No longer employed at RCT): Jessica Carlsson
Source: Torture :
Journal on rehabilitation of
torture victims and prevention
of torture ; vol. 19, no.
3
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102 tortured refugees attended a
formalized needs assessment including
neuropsychological and psychological measures of
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and the
Hopkins Symptom Checklist - 25 (HSCL-25). Even though significant
correlations between the amount of the measures
of organized violence and neuropsychological and
psychological distress were found in our data, the division
of the material into different subgroups according to
e.g. religious and nonreligious groups, did not have an influence
on the level of distress. After the
assessmentstudy, eight
Tibetan Lamas were interviewed about their views on
our methods and results. They questioned the validity
of our
westernrating scales and explained
that our results might be influenced by the Tibetan
culture, which among other things can be
characterized as having a view and articulation
of suffering much more complex than the units
of our study's rating scales