This study examines psychological and community responses to cataclysmic events. It includes a typology of disasters, a newly proposed model of help-seeking in disaster and an examination of legal and public policy implications of disaster taken from a psychological perspective.

Ecological and community perspectives on disaster intervention / Richard Gist and Bernard Lubin -- I: Foundations for the study of disaster -- 1. The social and community contexts of disaster / Kathleen J. Tierney -- 2. A classification scheme for disasters / Michael R. Berren, Jose M. Santiago, Allan Beigel, and Sue A. Timmons -- II: Types of disaster -- 3. Natural disasters / Robert Bolin -- 4. Human responses and treatment needs in airline disasters / James Neil Butcher and Laurie A. Dunn -- 5. The nature and effects of technological failures / Evelyn J. Bromet -- 6. Crime, violence, and terrorism / Marlene A. Young -- III: Approaches to intervention -- 7. Factors influencing help seeking for mental health problems after disasters / Suzanne Yates, Danny Axsom, Leonard Bickman, and George Howe -- 8. Mental health and disaster: preventive approaches to intervention / Diane Garaventa Myers -- 9. Clinical responses to disaster: assessment, management, and treatment / Charles B. Wilkinson and Enrique Vera -- 10. Planning and integrating disaster response / Morty Lebedun and Karl E. Wilson -- IV: Emerging issues in intervention and investigation -- 11. Legal issues and public policy in the psychology of disasters / Don M. Hartsough -- 12. Research issues in assessing disaster's effects / Susan D. Solomon -- Implications for research and practice / Richard Gist and Bernard Lubin.