Social Conflict after Disaster

Abstract

Objective:

Studying the social conflict among inhabitants of small settlements owing to extreme situations.

Methods:

Social-psychological investigation for revealing interpersonal and intergroup (victims and nonvictims) conflicts among in townsfolk of Sydybyl (Yakutia) and Beslan (North Ossetia) after disaster with death of children.

Results:

It was shown that the basic psychological need of persons who loss their relatives during a disaster is a search of guilty of tragedy. In consequence of this, occurs the stratification of society with apportionment of such groups as “victims” and “guilty”. The “victims” additionally mark out the group of “light victims” and accuse them of insufficient efforts to rescue of children of “victims”. It was suggested that the persistent search of guilty represents a form of psychological defense against the unbearable feeling of their own guilt towards died children. The universal (non-conditioned by ethnic or cultural factors) character of described phenomena was emphasized. It was marked that the social conflict (named by author as indigenous) deteriorates the social and economic consequences of disaster.

Conclusions:

The indigenous conflict tends to persistence and passes the certain phases, final of which is characterized by a high level of neurotic diseases in the opulation and migration of an efficient part of the population.