THEORETICAL-METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO STUDYING THE PROBLEM OF VICAROUS TRAUMA OF PSYCHOLOGISTS WORKING IN MILITARY CONFLICTS

Abstract

The article highlights and summarizes the contribution of scientific psychological schools to the research and development of the concept of vicarious trauma with further systematization of theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of this psychological phenomenon, and also proposes a hypothetical scheme of the mechanism of occurrence of vicarious trauma in the relationship “psychologist – client” within the framework of integrative theoretical-methodological approach for psychologists who work in the conditions of military conflicts. The scheme of the mechanism of vicarious trauma occurrence showed the process of how the client’s mental trauma is implemented into the psychologist’s inner world and becomes a vicarious trauma. During this process, certain mental processes are important, such as: empathic involvement of the psychologist in the professional alliance, traumatic countertransference, projective identification through «windows of empathy», which creates conditions for emotional contagion and “trauma induction” in the psychologist’s inner network. The hypothesis that the existing theoretical and methodological approaches to determining the mechanism of vicarious trauma, namely the theory of secondary traumatic stress, the constructivist theory of self-help and the theory of traumatic countertransference, describe one integral mental phenomenon of the emergence and development of vicarious trauma through the empathic involvement of a psychologist during professional activities within the holding «the client is a psychotherapist» due to the induction or infection of the client’s mental trauma, has been confirmed at the theoretical level, but requires further experimental research. While the theoretical and methodological approach of secondary traumatic stress, which gives a holistic view of the symptoms of vicarious trauma, the approach of the constructivist theory of self-help determines the level of violations of cognitive schemes in the areas of safety, trust, respect, control and intimacy, contributing to the comprehensive diagnosis of vicarious trauma as a psychological phenomenon In the future, the current theoretical assets will be used in order to develop measures that would help diagnose vicarious trauma in psychologists as early as possible, as well as overcome its destructive impact on specialists.