The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks: Ten years after

✍ Scribed by Daniel S. Weiss

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 38 KB
• Volume: 24
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0894-9867
• DOI: 10.1002/jts.20675

✦ Synopsis

This issue of the Journal of Traumatic Stress contains a special section on the consequences of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, DC that occurred on Tuesday, September 11, 2001 (9/11). It is a truism to note that this man-made terrorist disaster fundamentally, and permanently, altered the world view of the citizens of the United States, at least those who were old enough to appreciate its meaning. For the latter, however, their world view has always included the reality of the collapsing WTC towers and its horrible aftermath. It is also fair to say that the world view of citizens of many other countries around the world was also fundamentally and permanently altered. Victims of 9/11 came from over 70 countries. As well , 9/11 propelled emergency services workers (e.g., police, firefighters, and search and rescue personnel) and the role they play in disasters into the forefront of associations with 9/11. The 9/11 attacks also increased public awareness of the psychological processes that are required to adapt to and recover from exposure to traumatic stress (e.g., Weiss, 1993) and that such processes can be, blocked, derailed, or overwhelmed.

The first article published in the Journal of Traumatic Stress that mentions the WTC appeared in the February issue of Volume 15, which was published in 2002 (Koplewicz, Vogel, & Gallagher); ironically it was a study of the impact on children and parents of the 1993 bombing of the WTC, gathering data 3 and 9 months following exposure. The findings of this study were prescient for what was to follow involving the WTC only 8 years later. Exposed children reported symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and disaster-related fears; their parents reported their own symptoms of PTSD. The children did not report a decrease in symptoms at 9 months, although their parents did. The initial