Abstract:
The impact of traumatic events and the experience of psychological trauma have been depicted in myth, legend, art and literature throughout human history (for instance [1,2]). They have, for the last generation, been psychiatrically classified as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and as acute stress disorder (ASD). The papers in this In-Depth Review serve both to describe the status of current thinking in regard to the scientific conceptualization of psychological trauma and to raise questions in regard to our understanding of the contextualization of traumatic experience within occupational settings. For many years, occupational medicine and health and safety legislation has focused upon observable injury and illness caused by single events. These articles play a timely role in reminding us that many health and welfare concerns with far-reaching effects within organizational environments may be psychological, social and complex in nature and have enduring effects over a considerable span of time.