| Summary: | In this article post-shooting trauma is utilized as an
arbitrary punctuation to indicate how police officers
communicate their distress during this period of rapid
transition in South Africa. It is argued that the medical
model (with its attendant lineal causal explanations and
descriptions) is inhibitively limited in describing what
police officers are presently experiencing. The author
motivates the advantages of perceiving and describing events
from an ecosystemic perspective (which provides a contextual
understanding and emphasizes relationships} . "Stress" is
described as an aspect of the system as a whole and not
singularly attributable to individuals alone. Among others
new policing rules and roles, the turnover in personnel, and
the rate of's'ocio-political changes are shown to contribute.
It is argued that the Police, as society's guardians of
"power" have become the "symptom bearers" for a society in
the painful process of adapting to change. Recommendations
regarding possible interventions are made. === Psychology === M.A. (Clinical Psychology)
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