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Transcultural Psychiatry
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Do South African Former Detainees Experience Post-Traumatic Stress? Circumventing the Demand Characteristics of Psychological Assessment

Ashraf Kagee

Stellenbosch Universityskagee{at}sun.ac.za

Most research on persons subjected to physical or psychological torture for political reasons has framed this experience as traumatic, with the sequelae approximating the diagnostic criteria of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Yet, critiques of the trauma model have called attention to the fact that PTSD represents a Western conceptualization of the concerns of persons who have survived stressful experiences. In order to determine whether symptoms of traumatization are salient psychiatric phenomena for South African former detainees, semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 20 respondents who were detained and tortured for political reasons during the apartheid era. Interviews were transcribed and analysed for thematic content using a grounded theory approach. Results showed that although the main concerns expressed were unrelated to traumatization, participants also indicated that they experienced symptoms of post-traumatic stress. These data suggest that although too great a focus on traumatic responses may be misplaced, it remains important to consider the possibility that former detainees may exhibit symptoms of this nature. Consequently, critiques of the trauma discourse as a Western phenomenon need to be tempered with evidence of the lived reality of psychological sequelae experienced by this population.

Key Words: political detainees • post-traumatic stress disorder

Transcultural Psychiatry, Vol. 41, No. 3, 323-336 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/1363461504045643
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