Violence and Mental Health

Violence is one of the most important challenges, not only for public health systems, but also for public mental health. Violence can have immediate as well as long-term and even transgenerational effects on the mental health of its victims. This book provides a comprehensive and wide-ranging assessment of the mental health legacy left by violence. It addresses the issues as they affect states, communities and families, in other words at macro-, meso- and microlevels, beginning by describing the impact of violence on neurobiology and mental health, as well as the spectrum of syndromes and disorders associated with different forms of violence. The work moves on to tackle violence at the international—and intranational—level before zeroing in on the nature of violence in communities such as villages or city districts. It also examines the results of violence in the family. Each type of violence has distinct effects on mental health and in each chapter specific groups are explored in depth to demonstrate the heterogeneity of violence as well as the diversity of its outcomes in the realm of public mental health. Finally, the book addresses the notion of ‘undoing violence’ by detailing case studies of effective interventions and prevention occurring in countries, communities and families. These cases give us pause to reflect on the nature of resilience and dignity in the context of violence and mental health. All the chapters have been written by leading authors in the field and provide a state-of-the-art perspective. The authors, from different fields of expertise, facilitate interdisciplinary and international insights into the impact of violence on mental health.