Individual

We can assume that for most of the people in most of the communities described in this website the experience of having to leave their homes would have been very stressful, often traumatic. The departure itself would have been accompanied by a mixture of sadness, anger, and anxiety about the future. But in many cases it would have followed a series of major events that would have left many of those who went through them in a state of marked emotional distress even before the decision to leave was taken.

For most of the earlier evacuations there is no direct evidence at all about the emotional reactions of the people who had to leave. For some twentieth century evacuations we have a record of interviews conducted with some of those who left. In a few cases these interviews were carried out just before the time of departure or soon afterwards. Iorwerth Peate, for example, was able to talk to a few of the last residents on Mynydd Epynt as they were preparing to move away. Sometimes there is information about the more long term effects of an evacuation. In his book on St Kilda Tom Steel has summarised the various outcomes experienced by the former inhabitants of St Kilda as they attempted to establish a new life on the Scottish mainland.

See Steel T, The Life and Death of St Kilda, Fontana, 1975, chapter 14.

Interview records often provide vivid qualitative information about emotional feelings and strategies of adjustment among those interviewed, but none of the evidence related to communities described in this website has been gathered in a systematic way, analysed in any formal manner, or discussed in the light of relevant psychological theories. We may, however, hope to gain some insight into the experiences of those whose departure led to places becoming deserted by considering more recent sociological or psychological research into reactions to similar events. In a classic study of a major programme of urban relocation, for example, Fried (1963) demonstrated that the emotional responses of people in Boston, USA, who had to move to new housing, bore a strong resemblance to the reactions of people who have been bereaved. The physical quality of the accommodation into which they moved may have been superior to the homes they left behind, but nevertheless many of them suffered an intense sense of loss. In Britain Young and Wilmott (1957) documented the social consequences of a similar relocation scheme in Bethnal Green, London, where the move caused major disruption of the family and neighbourhood ties that people had enjoyed before they were re-housed.

We can also look for relevant evidence in reports produced after major disasters have occurred. A long list of such reports has been published by the Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center of the University of Colorado.

at http://www.colorado.edu/hazards/qr/qrrepts.html.

Some of these reports contain detailed information about psychological reactions. Go, for example, to Quick Report no. 158 by David Sattler, an account of the aftermath of the attacks of 11 September 2001 on the World Trade Center. Sattler obtained data from students at three New York universities during the first four weeks after the attacks. On average the level of distress was relatively low, presumably reflecting the fact that the students were not directly involved in or affected by the attacks. Nevertheless there was evidence within the group of four main stress reactions or "factors", namely:

1 Emotional arousal, including feelings of anger, irritability, distress when reminded of the events, and feelings of disorientation.
2 Sleeping problems, including difficulty sleeping and nightmares.
3 Emotional numbness.
4 Avoidance, including not talking about the events and avoiding things that might act as reminders of the events.

In addition Sattler found that most of the participants in his study expressed anxiety about further attacks in future, affecting either themselves or people close to them. Interestingly Sattler also looked for evidence of positive outcomes in accordance with the theory of post-traumatic growth. He found that participants often reported an increase in the sense that they were doing the right things with their life, and greater motivation to get things done. Other data indicated that participants felt more patriotic, and a very large number reported flying the US flag, but it may be a moot point whether this should be regarded as a positive outcome.

If you would like to read more on the way in which personal growth may often occur after a traumatic experience see Calhoun, L G, & Tedeschi, R G, Posttraumatic Growth: The Positive Lessons of Loss. Washington, DC, American Psychological Association, 2001.

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