TOWARD A HEALTHY SOCIETY: WHEN TRAUMA AFFECTS GROUP IDENTITY.

OBJECTIVE: The aim: The purpose of the article is to identify the essence and causes of collective trauma and reveal its consequences for group identity. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Materials and methods: The authors used an interdisciplinary approach along with the principles of objectivity, tolerance, and impartiality. The analysis of the texts was conducted according to the basic principles of hermeneutics, namely the inexhaustibility of the authentic text and immanent critique. In addition, the method of conceptual and categorical analysis was applied, as well as induction, deduction, generalization, etc. The data collection was carried out using PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar databases. Research papers were identified according to search terms: "trauma", "traumatic experience", "collective trauma", "traumatization", "stress", "historical trauma", "defeat", "the Holocaust", etc. CONCLUSION: Conclusions: Collective trauma is a mental wound caused by the direct or indirect traumatic experience - a stressful situation that becomes a source of emo¬tional tension due to an unexpected threat to the life of a group of people. Collective trauma occurs, on the one hand, due to the awareness of helplessness in the face of danger and, on the other hand, due to the excessiveness of traumatic experience, which turns it into the eternal present and destroys identity. Historical traumas arise in the process of conscious exploitation of traumatic experience by political or other leaders in order to achieve emotional unity and group consolidation. Without appropriate processing, they can cause antisocial behavior of the traumatized persons that manifests in seeking revenge. Social partnership can help us to avoid the negative consequences of collective trauma and achieve social consensus.

ON WAR, UNCERTAINTY, AND FUTURE: LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE EASTERN PHILOSOPHY.

OBJECTIVE: The aim: The paper aims to examine the relationship between uncertainty and plans for the future in traumatic situations such as war, as well as the role of the Eastern philosophy and its practical implications in managing uncertainty. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Materials and methods: The authors used integrative anthropological approach, interpretive research paradigm, hermeneutical approach along with narrative approach. The data collection was carried out using PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar databases. Research papers were identified according to search terms "uncertainty", "mental health", "health", "refugee", "anxiety", "depression", "war", "future", "Eastern philosophy", "mindfulness". CONCLUSION: Conclusions: Bearing a set of negative beliefs about uncertainty and reacting negatively to uncertain and unpredictable situations, individuals fall into a vicious cycle of uncertainty fueled by their fear of uncertainty. Uncertainty takes us to the future that seems threatening or returns us to the world of primordial chaos. In both cases, we are not in the present moment, "here and now". As far as we have no control over the past and future, we feel helpless and experience fear, anxiety, depression. Returning to the present gives us back control over the situation. By expanding the range of possible visions of the future, we stop focusing on the worst-case scenario. By accepting the situation and realizing what is subject to our control and what is not, we learn to comfort uncertainty by elaborating possible futures taking into account both our desires and the current situation. Our thoughts and actions today determine our tomorrow. We cannot overcome uncertainty since it is ontologically predetermined. But we can manage our responses to uncertainty turning to the Eastern philosophy thereby maintaining our mental and physical health and expanding the functional field of human capabilities to achieve freedom and self-realization.

MENTAL HEALTH AFTER TRAUMA: INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE DIMENSIONS.

OBJECTIVE: The aim: The article is devoted to uncovering the essence of the trauma, identifying the cause of its formation, and investigating the consequences for the person and the community. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Materials and methods: The methodological basis of the given study is the interdisciplinary and hermeneutic approach, which was used in combination with the methods of retrospective, analysis, synthesis, and extrapolation, as well as the methodological apparatus of memory studies with its inherent intention of the problem of group identity formation. A prominent place in the process of writing the work played the method of critical literature review. Sources reflecting research on individual and collective dimensions of trauma were found in PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar. Research articles were found using the keywords "trauma", "traumatic experience", "victim", "violence", "collective trauma", "cultural trauma", "memory", etc. CONCLUSION: Conclusions: Modern studies of traumatic experience are inextricably linked with the scientific work of Sigmund Freud, who was one of the first to explicate trauma as a destroyer of "protection". This gave reason to modern researchers to consider it an emotional reaction of the psyche to mental, physical, or cultural violence directed against the identity of an individual or an entire community. Whether inflicted on an individual or a community as a whole, trauma invariably seeks testimony in order to produce meanings and mechanisms capable of preventing violence and preserving the mental health of both the individual and the community as a whole.

CULTURAL AWARENESS IN CONTEMPORARY MENTAL HEALTH PRACTICE.

OBJECTIVE: The aim: To analyze cultural conditionality of mental health care practice; to explore the relationship between cultural awareness of mental health practitioners, their professional experience and professional status. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Materials and methods: It was hypothesized that cultural competence is expected to emerge with professional experience of mental health practitioners. The Sociocultural Awareness Questionnaire was administered to mental health care practitioners - counselors, clinicians, and therapists - (N=62), aged 27 to 65, with professional work experience from 1 to 25 years. The majority of the respondents were from Kyiv (Ukraine). RESULTS: Results: There is no significant correlation between the duration of the period of professional activity of mental health care practitioners and their ideas concerning cultural awareness (r = -0.084, p = 0.515). In the same way there is no statistically significant differences (U = 397.500, p = 0.866) in cultural awareness between two groups of Mental Health care practitioners based on a professional status criterion. CONCLUSION: Conclusions: No professional experience, nor status are the basis for the sociocultural awareness of mental health practitioners. The assumption that cultural competence is expected to emerge with experience has not been confirmed during the pilot study.