Encounter with Death and Destruction: The 1985 Mexico City Earthquake

Abstract

In 1986 we presented a paper at the Ninth International Congress of Group Psychotherapy in Zagreb in which we described the collective therapeutic effort of the Mexican Association of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (AMPP) in the aftermath of the 1985 Mexico earth- quake disaster. This is a further elaboration of the reactions to death and destruction and an attempt to reach a deeper understanding of that group crisis intervention experience. We describe the reactions of the group members and of the therapists, the dynamics of the groups and the social impact of the earthquake.