What Is Survivors Guilt Definition and Examples

Survivor’s guilt, also called survivor guilt or survivor syndrome, is the condition of feeling guilty after surviving a situation in which others died or were harmed. Importantly, survivor’s guilt often affects individuals who were themselves traumatized by the situation, and who did nothing wrong. The term was first introduced in 1961 as a way of describing the experiences of Holocaust survivors, but it has since been extended to many other situations, including survivors of the AIDS epidemic and survivors of workplace layoffs. Key Takeaways: Survivor's Guilt Survivor’s guilt is the experience of feeling guilty for surviving a situation or experience that caused death or injury to others.Survivor’s guilt is not currently recognized as an official diagnosis, but is associated with post-traumatic stress disorderThe term was first applied in the 1960s to describe Holocaust survivors. It has since been extended to a number of other situations, including survivors of the AIDS epidemic.Survivors guilt may be related to equity theory: the idea that when workers believe they receive more or less pay than a coworker with identical duties, they will attempt to adjust their workload in order to account for the difference in pay. Survivor’s guilt is characterized by a number of psychological symptoms, including depression, anxiety, vivid flashbacks to the traumatic event, lack of motivation, difficulty sleeping, and perceiving one’s identity differently. Many sufferers also experience physical symptoms, like headaches. Although survivor’s guilt is not considered an official psychiatric disorder, it is associated with post-traumatic stress disorder. History and Origins â€Å"Survivor syndrome† was described in 1961 by William Niederland, a psychoanalyst who diagnosed and treated survivors of the Holocaust. Through a series of papers, Niederland described the psychological and physical ramifications of the concentration camps, noting that many survivors developed survivor syndrome because of â€Å"the magnitude, severity, and duration† of these traumatic experiences. According to Hutson et al., it was Sigmund Freud who first noted that people feel guilty for their own survival when others die. Niederland’s paper, however, introduced this type of guilt as a syndrome. He also extended the concept to include the fact that survivors guilt includes a sense of impending punishment. The same paper notes that the psychiatrist Arnold Modell expanded how survivor guilt was understood in the context of a family, focusing on specific relations between family members. For example, an individual may unconsciously feel guilty that they are luckier than another family member and may consequently sabotage their own future success. Examples of Survivor’s Guilt Though survivor’s guilt was first coined to describe Holocaust survivors, it has since been applied to many other situations. Some examples are listed below. Survivors of the AIDS epidemic. This group includes anyone who lived during the AIDS epidemic and is still alive. However, because AIDS affected gay male communities with particular severity, survivors guilt is often studied in relation to AIDS and gay men. Sufferers of survivors guilt may be HIV positive or HIV negative, and they may or may not know anyone who died during the epidemic. One study stated that gay men who had had more sexual partners were more likely to experience survivor’s guilt, and that they may feel as if they have been â€Å"spared at random.† Workplace survivors. This term describes employees of a company who feel guilty when other employees suffer job loss or layoffs. Workplace survivors often attribute their retention in the company to luck rather than merit or any other positive traits. Survivors of illnesses. Illness can cause survivors guilt in a number of ways. For example, an individual may feel guilty for testing negative for a genetic condition if other members of their family tested positive. Survivors of chronic illness may also experience survivors guilt when other patients with the same condition die. Key Theories of Survivors Guilt In the workplace, equity theory predicts that workers who think that they are in an unequal situation–for example, that they receive more pay than a coworker who does equal work–will try to make the situation fairer. For example, they may attempt to work harder so that their higher salary is commensurate to their workload. A 1985 study simulated a work environment where an individual (the subject of the study) witnessed a fellow coworker being laid off. The study found that witnessing a layoff significantly impacted the productivity of workplace survivors, who may have increased their productivity to offset the guilt they felt about surviving company layoffs. The study emphasized that further work should be done to explore other factors, such how other emotions—like anxiety over one’s own job security—impact productivity, as well as the extent to which a laboratory experiment could be applied to real-life situations. Equity theory extends beyond the workplace. Survivor’s guilt can occur in many types of social relationships based on how an individual perceives his or her situation compared to others. For example, in the 1985 workplace study, lab participants barely knew their fictional â€Å"coworkers,† but still tended to feel guilty when observing the layoff. However, the strengths of social relationships are important for predicting the magnitude and frequency of survivor’s guilt. In Popular Culture Survivor’s guilt frequently comes up in pop culture. For example, in some iterations of the Superman comic, Superman is the sole survivor of the planet Krypton, and consequently suffers from immense survivors guilt. The iconic singer Elvis Presley was haunted by survivor’s guilt all his life, brought on by his twin brother’s death during childbirth. One biography on Presley suggests that this event also motivated Presley to set himself apart through his musical career. Sources Baumeister RF, Stillwell AM, Heatherton, T. Guilt: an interpersonal approach. Psychol Bull, 1994; 115(2), 243-267.Brockner J, Davy J, Carter, C. Layoffs, self-esteem, and survivor guilt: Motivational, affective, and attitudinal consequences. Organ Behav Hum Decis Process; 36(2), 229-244.Hutson SP, Hall JM, Pack, F. Survivor guilt: Analyzing the concept and its contexts. ANS Adv Nurs Sci, 2015; 38(1), 20-33.Kakutani, M. Elvis, from the kitchen to the couch. The New York Times website. https://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/20/books/elvis-from-the-kitchen-to-the-couch.html. August 20, 1996.Land, E. What is AIDS survivor syndrome? BETA website. February 1, 2018.Ward, T. Survivor guilt: Examining the effect a redundancy situation can have on the psychological contract for those employees left behind. Undergraduate thesis, Dublin, National College of Ireland, 2009.Wayment HA, Silver RC, Kemeny, M. Spared at random: Survivor reactions in the gay community. J Appl Soc Psychol, 1995; 25(3), 187-209 .Wolfe, H. Survivor syndrome: Key considerations and practical steps. Institute for Employment Studies, 2004.

The Genre Of Cult Film - 1741 Words

The area of study to be explored is genre and my investigation will look into ways we are able to clarify the vast genre of cult film. Speculated by theorists such as Sconce, Jancovich and many others, cult film is one of the most diverse and ambiguous genres of the past 60 years in motion picture history. Beginning in the 1950s with unconventional flicks like Plan 9 from Outer Space and The Blob, cult film as a ‘quasi-genre’ began to not only reject one set of stylistic conventions, but also started to expand into various sub-genres that it could ‘umbrella’. Highlighted by Sconce in his study, ‘[cult film] would include entries from disparate sub-genres such as â€Å"bad films†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦and just about every other manifestation of exploitation cinema†¦show more content†¦In addition to this, those who construct and encode ideologies and messages into cult films need to know and implement a repertoire of elements that will go against the pl easures of recognition and provide a more sophisticated and untraditional narrative experience. Whether through manipulating time and space, or providing powerful subject matter, it is through these technical and visual codes that the text will continuously challenge audience expectation and draw a preferred or oppositional reading to the weird and wonderful it tries to represent. As argued by Thornton, ‘it is not defined according to some single, unifying feature shared by all cult movies, but rather through a ‘sub-cultural ideology’ in filmmakers, films or audiences are seen as existing in opposition to the mainstream.’ Therefore, the audience appeal for cult film is not only through its quirky and abnormal generic values, but also through the plurality of artistic control that is held by the auteur and its audience’s desires. In order to go into more extensive detail, I have selected Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive and David Fincher’s Fight Club – two contrasting texts with diverse ideologies and technical codes yet both linked by

Film and Literature Essay Example For Students

Film and Literature Essay RashomonIn the short story Rashomon by Akutagawa Ryunosuke the theme of choosing between life and death and right from wrong has been put to the test over and over through out the depths of time. With this knowledge it can clearly be stated that one can not perform an evil without thinking about one being done in return to them. In Rashomon the servant was left with a valiant decision, one in which he felt very uncomfortable and at the same time believed incapable of making. After some brief analysis of his situation he clearly realized he needed to make a decision between feast or fam-ine, he chose the former. Humans when faced with making critical choices such as one that involves there own life over the life of an-other and at the same time put under pressure about making those choices tend to save themselves. This was exactly the choice the ser-vant made. This of course without saying is the natural choice, but these decisions are also the ones that separate the heroes or icons from ordinary people. Decisions such as whether to fight for your country even though you dont agree with the reason for it, or to stand up for your religion even though you will be persecuted. The servant could have opted not to rob the old women and think of an-other way of surviving, but that would have been the more !difficult of the two decisions. When he climbed up that latter he was full of fear but that fear soon dispersed when he saw an old women, some-one who was weaker than him. The servant saw the old women pulling hair out of the head of corpses he still at this point had com-passion for those dead people and his human side arose:With every hair she plucked, the mans fear subsided. But, at the same time, he began to feel an intense hatred for this old women. To put it more accurately, a growing aversion to all manner of evil slowly welled up inside of him. If at this moment he were to weigh the merits of stealing or starving to death, as he had done under the gate, he would have chosen death without any hesitation.What made the servant change from what the author reveals about his character that he was an adequate servant to his master to a crazed man. The fact is all humans have sinned and when tempted with the opportunity it can sometimes seem very difficult to turn down especially with mundane decisions. Although, it angered him that the old women was taking hair off corpses heads and was going to use them to make a wig and sell it for food or money it didnt oc-cur to him that it would have bee no different if it were him taking the hair off the heads of those corpses because he was robbing her. At that moment he was so engulfed with evil that only the thought of survival raced through his mind. When flushed with a decision that can alter your life for the better you will more than likely make that choice which will enhance your life without the consideration of others. This was the exact choice that both the servant and the old women made. The servant took advantage a situation because he would have otherwise starved to death. The next time he might be the one who will be taken ad-vantage from by someone stronger than him.

To Build a Fire Mans Intelligence is Foolish Essay Example For Students

To Build a Fire: Mans Intelligence is Foolish Essay To Build a Fire: Mans Intelligence is Foolish Essay How many times have you seen birds flying south for the winter? They do not read somewhere or use some computer to know that they must fly to survive. In Jack Londons To Build a Fire, we see how that mans intelligence is sometimes foolish. The man, who is walking in seventy-five degrees below zero weather, lets his learned behavior override his instinct. Therefore, he dies. Londons theme is that no matter how intelligent society becomes, we as a species should never discard our basic instincts. We will write a custom essay on To Build a Fire: Mans Intelligence is Foolish specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now In the beginning of the tale we see that the man realizes it is cold, but only sees this as a fact and not a danger. The man spit on the ground to test how cold it was. His test taught him that it was colder than he had first thought, but he never thought of that as a danger only as a reality. That there should be anything more to it than that was a thought that never entered his head (119). To many times modern man plods along oblivious to the reality that lies one moment or misstep away (Votleler 272). The man sees that he is feeling the effects of the cold more and more as he goes along, but more than ever he pushes on. Several times he comments that the cold is making his hands and feet numbed, and frostbite is killing his cheeks. He thinks What were frosted cheek? A bit painful, that was all. . . (120). Again he chose to ignore an instinct that would have saved him. The dog, on the other hand, although guided by his learned behavior still retains his instincts. The dog follows the man throughout his ill faded journey, but after the man perishes he relies upon his instincts to survive. This is witnessed in the last paragraph by the statement Then it turned and trotted up the trail in the direction of the camp it knew, where there were other food providers and fire providers (129). The theme of Londons To Build a Fire is how we should all take heed to modern knowledge and learned behavior has its benefits, but our primal instincts should never have ignored. The man in the story had lots of knowledge but neglected to pay attention to his sixth sense. The dog on the other hand, followed as long as he could but then let his instincts carry him to safety. We can never have enough knowledge to replace the survival skill that nature has provided us. English .

Rating JFK essays

Rating JFK essays In 1960 John F. Kennedy was elected president, his good looks, his familys history, and his charismatic personality won him the election. He was the youngest ever elected to office, and his lack of experience showed when dealing with foreign affairs. Throughout his campaign JFK had to deal with many obstacles, like the bad reputation of his father and him being the ambassador to Great Britain (1937to 1940), his religion (Roman Catholic), his youth, and even him being a Democrat. Democrats were known for being soft on communism, because of Harry Trumans lack of discipline towards the Soviets. Since Truman was a democrat, this was one of the negatives that almost lost the election for JFK. His lack of experience was a major problem for putting faith in JFK and trusting his decisions. The Cuban missile crisis was a huge problem during JFKs time as president that he helped solve. JFK encountered many obstacles while he was trying to free the US from having missiles pointed at them. US found out that the Soviets were placing nuclear missiles in Cuba that were pointing at the US. The missiles were only ninety miles away, aiming for the east coast of America. JFK was split on what to do, the military was pulling him to invade Cuba to take the missiles away and take out Castro, but that would only result in retaliation from the Soviets because it would seem like an attack against them. Military leaders wanted to take extreme action against the Soviets because of what happened in 1960, the Bay of Pigs. The CIA trained hundreds of Cuban exiles to invade Cuba and take out Castro. But nothing went as hoped for, the air strike didnt hurt the Cuban air force and the CIA lied and said that the air strike did do damage. Kennedy felt as if he was responsible for the Bay of Pigs because he gave permission. Although JFK didnt know about the plan only until nine days afte ...

An Overview of Cultural Conservatives

An Overview of Cultural Conservatives There are no solid dates for when cultural conservatism arrived on the American political scene, but it was certainly after 1987, which lead some people to believe the movement was started by writer and philosopher Allan Bloom, who in 1987, wrote Closing of the American Mind, an immediate and unexpected national best seller. While the book is mostly a condemnation of the failure of the liberal American university system, its criticism of social movements in the US has strong cultural conservative overtones. For this reason, most people look to Bloom as the movements founder. Ideology Often confused with social conservatism - which is more concerned with pushing social issues such as abortion and traditional marriage to the front of the debate - modern cultural conservatism has strayed from the simple anti-liberalization of society Bloom espoused. Cultural conservatives of today hold fast to traditional ways of thinking even in the face of monumental change. They believe strongly in traditional values, traditional politics and often have an urgent sense of nationalism. It is in the area of traditional values where cultural conservatives most overlap with social conservatives (and other types of conservatives, for that matter). While cultural conservatives do tend to be religious, it is only because religion plays such a large role in US culture. Cultural conservatives, however, can be affiliated with any American sub-culture, but whether they are of the Christian culture, anglo-saxon Protestant culture or African American culture, they tend to align themselves tightly with their own. Cultural conservatives are often accused of racism, even though their flaws (if they surface) may be more xenophobic than racist. To a much larger degree than traditional values, nationalism and traditional politics are primarily what concern cultural conservatives. The two are often strongly intertwined, and show up in national political debates under the auspices of immigration reform and protecting the family. Cultural conservatives believe in buying American and oppose introducing foreign languages such as Spanish or Chinese on interstate signs or ATM machines. Criticisms A cultural conservative may not always be a conservative in all other matters, and this is where critics most often assault the movement. Because cultural conservatism isnt easily defined in the first place, critics of cultural conservatives tend to point to inconsistencies that dont really exist. For example, cultural conservatives are largely silent (as Bloom was) on the issue of gay rights (their main concern is the movements disruption with American traditions, not the gay lifestyle itself), critics therefore point to this as being contradictory to the conservative movement as a whole which it isnt, since conservatism in general has a such a broad meaning. Political Relevance Cultural conservatism in common American thought has increasingly replaced the term religious right, even though they arent really the same things. In fact, social conservatives have more in common with the religious right than cultural conservatives. Nevertheless, cultural conservatives have enjoyed considerable success at the national level, especially in the 2008 presidential election, where immigration became a focus of the national debate. Cultural conservatives are often grouped politically with other kinds of conservatives, simply because the movement doesnt tightly address wedge issues like abortion, religion, and as noted above, gay rights. Cultural conservatism often serves as a launching pad for newcomers to the conservative movement who want to call themselves conservative while they determine where they stand on the wedge issues. Once they are able to define their beliefs and attitudes, they often move away from cultural conservatism and into another, more tightly focused movement.

Discuss the interpretation of First Industrial Revolution as an Term Paper

Discuss the interpretation of First Industrial Revolution as an Industrious revolution - Term Paper Example Due to the introduction of improved methods, production could be made at a much larger scale than before. Improvements in methods of production and production possibilities in large scale allowed the manufacturers to produce better quality products at lower cost and within a lower period of time than it could produce previously. There are debates regarding the origin of the industrial revolution. According to some authors and historians, the beginning of the revolution was in Britain. The industrial revolution has been often termed as British invention. However, according to some other sources the roots of the revolution is unclear. Several European countries participated in the revolution and made it a global success. Some researchers have claimed that the term was first coined in France. Significant improvements can be found to have taken place during this period in France in economic as well as social spheres. These combined changes were named as ‘revolution industrielleâ₠¬â„¢ in France and it was considered to be an economic counterpart of the political revolution that was taking place in the country during the period. Industrious revolution One thing is apparent from this discussion; it is that the industrial revolution took place as a result of considerable hard work and diligent attitude of the people that took the leading position in this revolution. The industrial revolution is the outcome of an ‘industrious revolution’ that took place in different parts of the world to improve the status of production units in the economies that participated in this activity. It took the form of industrial revolution when many countries from Europe as well as Asia took part in it. The phase of industrious revolution was prior to the industrial revolution between the 17th century and the 19th century. According to some scholars, this revolution was the forerunner of the industrial revolution (Craig and Thomas 248). The phenomenon of industrious rev olution refers to the spending behavior of households during the 17th century. Therefore, it relates to the production as well as consumption of products and services. The simplistic explanation of the cause of revolution is that there was an unprecedented rise in demand for goods and services in the market. The industrious revolution took place before the industrial revolution took shape. Understanding of the industrious revolution would allow readers to understand the context of the industrial revolution better. According to information revealed by various sources, the first industrial revolution took place in the early Modern Period. The period of revolution was characterized by availability of excess of money as well as excess amount of food crops. This was the result of development of new technology and methods of production. However, the force that led to these technological advancements took shape during the pre-industrial revolution period, known as industrious revolution. D uring this period England moved from being an economy with sporadic technological changes to an economy in which persistent technological advancements took place. Well known historians, Joachim Voth and Jan de Vries have