Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-24hb2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-18T02:56:14.676Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Psychiatric Aspects of Terrorist Violence: Northern Ireland 1969–1987

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Peter S. Curran*
Affiliation:
Mater Infirmorum Hospital, Crumlin Road, Belfast BT14 6AB, Northern Ireland

Abstract

For 18 years, Northern Ireland has suffered a changing pattern of civil disorder. Early years were marked by widespread sectarian rioting, shootings, and bombings, which heightened community tension and caused much social and commercial disruption. However, in recent years, terrorist organisations have been more selective in their acts of violence. There are methodological difficulties in assessing the psychological impact of civil disorder and terrorism. But, as well as can be judged from community surveys, hospital admissions and referral data, psychotropic drug usage, suicide and attempted suicide rates, and from assessment of the actual victims of violence, society has not ‘broken down’ nor has the impact been judged considerable. Possible explanations are discussed.

Type
Review Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1988 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abraham, K. (1953) Selected Papers on Psychoanalysis. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Cairns, E. & Wilson, R. (1985) Psychiatric aspects of violence in Northern Ireland. Stress Medicine, 1, 193201.Google Scholar
Caro, D. & Irving, M. (1973) The Old Bailey bomb explosion. The Lancet, i, 14331435.Google Scholar
Carstairs, G. M. (1984) Mental health and the environment in developing countries In Mental Health and the Environment (ed. Freeman, H. L.). London: Churchill Livingstone.Google Scholar
Dohan, F. C. (1966) Wartime changes in hospital admissions: schizophrenia. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 42, 123.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Durkheim, E. (1951) Suicide. Translated by Spaulding, J. A. & Simpson, G. Glencoe, Illinois: Free Press (MacMillan).Google Scholar
Fogelson, R. M. (1970) Violence and grievances: reflections on the 1960s riots. Journal of Social Issues, 26, 141163.Google Scholar
Fraser, R. M. (1971) The cost of commotion: an analysis of the psychiatric sequelae of the 1969 Belfast riots. British Journal of Psychiatry, 118, 257264.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1952) Mourning and melancholia: collected papers (ed. Strachey, J.) vol. 4. London: Hogarth Press.Google Scholar
Greenley, J. R., Gillespie, D. P. & Lindenthal, J. J. (1975) A race riot's effects on psychological symptoms. Archives of General Psychiatry, 32, 11891195.Google Scholar
Hadden, W. A., Rutherford, W. H. & Merrett, J. D. (1978) The injuries of terrorist bombing: a study of 1532 consecutive victims. British Journal of Surgery, 65, 525531.Google Scholar
Hemphill, R. E. (1941) The influence of the war on mental disease: a psychiatric study. Journal of Mental Science, 87, 170182.Google Scholar
Heskin, K. (1980) Northern Ireland: a psychological analysis. Dublin: Gill and MacMillan.Google Scholar
Horowitz, M. J. (1976) Diagnosis and treatment of stress response syndromes: general principles In Emergency and Disaster Management (eds Parad, H. J., Resnik, H. L. & Parad, L. G.). Bowie, Maryland: The Charles Press Publishers.Google Scholar
Ierodiakonou, C. S. (1970) The effect of a threat of war on neurotic patients in psychotherapy. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 24, 643651.Google Scholar
Kee, M., Bell, P., Loughrey, G. C., Roddy, R. J. & Curran, P. S. (1987) Victims of violence: a demographic and clinical study. Medicine, Science and the Law, 27, 241247.Google Scholar
Kennedy, T. & Johnston, G. W. (1975) Civilian bomb injuries In Surgery of Violence (ed. Ware, Martin). London: BMA publication.Google Scholar
King, D. J., Griffiths, K., Reilly, P. M. & Merrett, J. D. (1982) Psychotropic drug use in Northern Ireland, 1966–1980: prescribing trends, inter- and intra-regional comparisons and relationship to demographic and socioeconomic variables. Psychological Medicine, 12, 819833.Google Scholar
Klee, G. D. & Gorwitz, K. (1970) Effects of the Baltimore riots on psychiatric hospital admissions. Mental Hygiene, 54, 447449.Google Scholar
Lewis, A. (1942) Incidence of neurosis in England under war conditions. The Lancet, ii, 175183.Google Scholar
Lyons, H. A. (1971) Psychiatric sequelae of the Belfast riots. British Journal of Psychiatry, 118, 265273.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lyons, H. A. (1972) Depressive illness and aggression in Belfast. British Medical Journal, i, 342345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyons, H. A. & Bindal, K. K. (1977) Attempted suicide in Belfast. Journal of the Irish Medical Association, 70, 328332.Google Scholar
Lyons, H. A. (1979) Civil violence – the psychological aspects. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 23, 373393.Google Scholar
Mira, E. (1939) Psychiatric experience in the Spanish war. British Medical Journal, i, 12171220.Google Scholar
Nasr, S., Racy, J. & Flaherty, J. A. (1983) Psychiatric effects of the civil war in Lebanon. Psychiatric Journal of the University of Ottawa, 8, 208212.Google Scholar
O'Malley, P. P. (1972) Attempted suicide before and after the communal violence in Belfast, August 1969 – a preliminary study. Journal of the Irish Medical Association, 65, 109113.Google ScholarPubMed
O'Malley, P. P. (1975) Attempted suicide, suicide and communal violence. Journal of the Irish Medical Association, 68, 103109.Google Scholar
Porot, M. (1957) Les retentissements psychopathologiques des evenments d'Algerie. Press Medicate, 65, 801803.Google Scholar
Shenouda, N. A., Greig, A. D. & Dignan, A. P. (1980) Casualty overload from the Southall riots. British Medical Journal, 281, 975.Google Scholar
Tan, Eng-Seong & Simons, R. C. (1973) Psychiatric sequelae to a civil disturbance. British Journal of Psychiatry, 122, 5763.Google Scholar
Tucker, K. & Lettin, A. (1975) The Tower of London explosion. British Medical Journal, iii, 287289.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.