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Voices of 9/11 First Responders: Patterns of Collective Resilience

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Abstract

The aim of the ethnographic research reported here was to increase knowledge concerning the values and social and emotional characteristics of 9/11 responders in order to benefit others in subsequent manmade disasters. The research is based on a series of in-depth interviews conducted with ground zero first responders; firefighters, police officers, fire and police chaplains, and media persons. The materials that emerged from the study indicate that psychodynamic concepts, such as post-traumatic stress, may be too individualistically formulated to take into account the significant factors that acted as the basis for the resilience of these responders.

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Freedman, T.G. Voices of 9/11 First Responders: Patterns of Collective Resilience. Clinical Social Work Journal 32, 377–393 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-004-0538-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-004-0538-z

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