Table of Contents

The Psychiatrist as a Political Critic: A Foreword Ashis Nandy
Prologue
Introduction
I: BACKGROUND
Ethnic Consciousness
Heart of Terror
II: THEORY AND METHODOLOGY
Theory
Methodology
III: COLLECTIVE TRAUMA: CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES
Tsunami
Vanni
Disappearance: The Hidden Reality With Sambasivamoorthy Sivayokan
Militancy
IV: OTHER COMMUNITIES
War Trauma in the Military, Their Families and Communities Ruwan M. Jayatunge
Collective Trauma in the Tamil Community in London Andrew Keefe
V: INTERVENTIONS
Psychosocial Interventions With Contributions from Thedsanamoorthy Vijayasangar, Kuhan Satkunanayagam, Vijayasangar Sivajini, Sambasivamoorthy Sivayokan and Rachel Tribe
Trauma and Beyond: The Evolving Field of Mental Health and Psychosocial Work in Sri Lanka Aanada Galappatti
Psychosocial Interventions in Sri Lanka: Challenges in a Post-war Environment Gameela Samarasinghe
Epilogue
References
Index

About the Author

Daya Somasundaram is a senior professor of psychiatry at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Jaffna, and a consultant psychiatrist working in northern Sri Lanka for over two decades. He has also worked in Cambodia for two years in a community mental health programme with the Transcultural Psychosocial Organisation. Apart from teaching and training a variety of health staff and community-level workers, his research and publications have mainly concentrated on the psychological effects of disasters, both man-made wars and natural tsunami, and the treatment of such effects. His book Scarred Minds: The Psychological Impact of War on Sri Lankan Tamils describes the psychological effects of war on individuals. He has co-authored The Broken Palmyra: The Tamil Crisis in Sri Lanka: An Inside Account.
Somasundaram received the Commonwealth Scholarship in 1988 and the fellowship of the Institute of International Education’s Scholars Rescue Fund in 2006–07. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists and Sri Lanka College of Psychiatrists. He has functioned as co-chair of the subcommittee on PTSD formed under the WHO working group on stress-related disorders during the ICD-11 revision process. Currently on an extended sabbatical in Australia, he is working as a consultant psychiatrist at Glenside Hospital, supporting Survivors of Torture and Trauma Assistance and Rehabilitation Service (STTARS), and is a clinical associate professor at the University of Adelaide.

Reviews

A rare volume that details the psychosocial impact of manmade and natural disasters of Sri Lankan society...this volume will help the readers to show a definite path to move ahead leaving the tragedy and hoping the prosperous life of the civil society in Sri Lanka.
*Journal of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology*

It is difficult to write about ordinary people affected over the course of Sri Lanka’s Civil war...Daya Somasundram’s Scarred Communities provides the best recent counterpoints about the Sri Lanka’s civil war. Part anthology, part theoretical discussion, part case study in psychological work, the book is homogeneous than most academic texts. It provides patient and sophisticated account of trauma in Tamil population of north-east Sri Lanka...the book is divided into five chapters beginning with a short and sophisticated history of civil war that is alone worth the price of the book...it skilfully mediates, within the confines of an academic text, between cultural history, narrative anthropology and mental field work.
*Economic & Political Weekly, Vol 8*

[The book] is a qualitative, psycho-ecological study of the long-term effects of Disasters- both man-made and natural- on Sri Lankan communities…. Given the methodological rigor and rich source of information, the book is a must-read for all those who are interested in psychosocial aspects of conflicts and natural disasters.
*The book Review, October 2016*