Geoethics and hazard education : a comparison between Calabria (Southern Italy) and Malta

Abstract

The occurrence of moderate and large natural disasters has shown the importance of the understanding the psychological damage resulting from such catastrophic events. In this context the relatively new discipline known as Emergency Psychology plays a key role. It deals with the study, prevention and treatment of psychic phenomena, cognitive and behavioral arising in emergency situations, in harmony with geoethical principles. It can work in collaboration with Medical Geography. The name of Medical Geography was first used by doctors of the eighteenth and nineteenth century to denote the complex relationships between the morbid phenomena and the different environments and cultures, according to an intuition of Hippocrates, who placed well in evidence the importance of cultural and environmental factors in the spread of diseases. Emergency Psychology also promotes the management of human defenses in order to prevent a particularly stressful event procure a permanent discomfort in the individual and in the community. It consists of two general areas: Collective Emergency Psychology: deals with the effects of extreme traumatic events that affect entire communities, such as: natural disasters, disasters and serious socio-political situations. In these cases the critical event is collective. The Individual Emergency Psychology is concerned, however, the effects of extreme events that affect the individual directly or to which is to assist or information obtained in relation to loved ones, such as socio-existential events, clinical situations. In all these cases, the critical event threatens the individual's left traumatized. Children who have experienced traumatic stress often require an individual approach in order to help him to revisit the traumatic event and to give proper meaning to the experience. It is recommended, therefore, a specific therapeutic procedure to enable the child to describe in detail the traumatic experience and understand the meaning of their reactions. The design, the game and handling are a key to access the mental representation of the traumatic event that the child has formed. They are also used as indicators of the child experience and how he solves the traumatic elements of the event. The present work aims to collect testimonies and mental maps of drawn by Calabria (Southern Italy) and Malta students. A critical comparison was made on the natural disasters experiences reported by students.