When History is Damaged: The Psychological Impact of War

As of lately, it seems like every news outlet is talking about airstrikes, and when we hear about them, the headlines focus on the political and militant tensions. But when we go beyond the strategies and the threats, there’s another factor that no one takes account of: the psychological impact of the people who actually live there.

Image Source: UNESCO World Heritage Convention. Golestan Palace. https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1422/

Recently, there were a lot of concerns raised after the strikes in Tehran. The airstrikes caused damage to the Golestan Palace, a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site, that has been around for centuries. For many people, places like this aren’t just tourist attractions, rather they represent culture, history, and shared identity. 

When people’s cultural landmarks, neighborhoods, and homes are destroyed, the effects of the destruction go way beyond the physical aspects of it. A psychological term to describe this would be collective trauma, which refers to when a traumatic event affects an entire community or group of people, rather than just a single individual. Losing something like the Golestan Palace can break someone’s sense of community.

For the people that are living in parts of the world experiencing conflict, the stress can be never-ending. The fear of future attacks, the fear that their everyday lives will never be what it once was, and seeing the physical damage that has been done can be traumatic and stress-inducing. There are studies that show that people, especially children, who’ve had prolonged exposure to violence or conflict can have the same effects as victims themselves, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Usually, war is measured in terms of casualties, damages, military outcomes, but the impact it has on people’s mental health exists way beyond the headlines.