Psychosocial Trauma, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Torture

Over the past few years, within the teams that provide medical-psychological care to people suffering from the psychic sequels of torture in our country, there has been a permanent discussion surrounding certain categories that arise from psychiatric nosography as is the case of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSDA) – that have been put forward as descriptive or interpretative models of the whole set of effects produced by this act of violence on psychic functions. Perhaps PTSD is the nosography that has been resorted to most often in order to comply with this diagnostic function, aimed at obtaining through this conceptual framework a model that in addition to the implementation of this aspect of psychiatric practice in the field of mental health and human rights, is also capable of performing the task of systematizing, encompassing and generalizing the disorder that torture and other forms of violations of the right to physical, psychic and moral integrity have on the psyche of individuals. Thus, an interesting discussion emerges regarding the probable existence in the tortured person, of a set of symptoms, psychic processes, mental disorders, or whatever name one wishes to use, recognizable in medical practice as a disorder or syndrome, adapted to the diagnostic task.