Individual reaction to stress with former concentration camp immates (author's transl)

Abstract

The individual disposition to react to different stressors to play an important role in an extreme stress situation, i.e. the incarceration in concentration camps. Ten to fourteen years after their liberation, 219 former concentration camp inmates now living in Bavaria, New York and Israel were given semi-structured interviews. Since no statistically significant correlations between psychic and somatic complaints and incarceration could be found, we computed a factor analysis on illness dimensions. We found high correlations between these and the stress induced by concentration camp incarceration. An important answer to the above mentioned questions was the fact that there was no homogeneous reaction syndrome, such as it has always been described in the literature on concentration camp syndromes. We found four patterns of delayed reaction to stress. According to the contribution of somatic and psychic complaints, the factors were named as follows: 1. psycho-physical syndrome, 2. internal disease, 3. gynaecological illness, 4. psychic (social) syndrome. Personality factors played an important role in the development of these syndromes, because they modified the degree of stress endured. Personality factors were shown to be dependent on life history. The importance of these results for mastering stressors is being discussed.