Associations between self and other representations and posttraumatic adjustment among political prisoners

Abstract

The content and structure of self and other representations and their association with posttraumatic stress symptoms, somatic symptoms, and positive growth were studied among 117 Palestinian male political prisoners. Further, the associations between the representations and the severity of trauma and the post-detention conditions (such as education, place of residency and employment), and the role of representation patterns as a moderator between trauma exposure and symptoms was studied. Cluster analysis identified three representation patterns based on participants' descriptions of their spouse and themselves, and of childhood relationships with their mother and father. Representation patterns differed in negative vs. positive content and in the levels of differentiation and conceptual maturity: The Malevolent Others and Defeated Self representation pattern was characterized by very negative content, and poor differentiation and conceptual maturity in all descriptions; the Moderate Parents and Negative Spouse pattern was characterized by an average level of content negativity/positivity and reasonable levels of differentiation and conceptual maturity, and the Benevolent Spouse and Ambitious Self pattern showed the most positive content and the highest levels of differentiation and conceptual maturity in spouse and self descriptions. The results further showed that the self and other representations associated with both the posttraumatic stress symptoms and the positive growth, but not with the somatic symptoms. The men with Malevolent Others and Defeated Self representation pattern reported higher levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms and lower levels of positive growth than those with other representation patterns. The representation patterns did not differ according to the severity of trauma or the post-detention conditions. Finally, the self and other representations did not moderate between severe torture and ill-treatment and symptoms.

Keywords:

• Trauma
• Posttraumatic adjustment
• Self and other representations

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by The Finnish Academy of Science. We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Samir Qouta, PhD, Neveen El-Shams and Abed El Kader Abu Abdo during the data collection.