title: Coping with trauma: narrative and cognitive perspectives.
abstract: The immediate period following a traumatic event is a crucial time in the survivors' process of recovery. During this time, a narrative of the trauma is generated and constructed, alongside a process of cognitive processing of the traumatic events. In the first part of the article we present the outlines of the narrative and cognitive attitudes to trauma; the second part will illustrate the developmental process through which the trauma narrative is shaped, in the stories of five survivors of a terror attack. We suggest that by analyzing three main components of the trauma narrative (coherence, finding meaning and self-evaluation), together with the equivalent cognitive attitudes, it is possible to evaluate the process of recovery, identify foci of difficulties in this process and pinpoint possible therapeutic interventions in the early stages after the trauma.
authors.affiliation: Center for Traumatic Stress, Hadassah University Hospital, Jerusalem, Israel. tuvalmr@mail.biu.ac.il
authors.forename: Rivka
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tuval-Mashiach
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Freedman
authors.forename: Neta
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bargai
authors.forename: Rut
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Boker
authors.forename: Hilit
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hadar
authors.forename: Arieh Y
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: Shalev
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D033262:Narration; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*