Persone disperse: aspetti psicologici della ricerca

The paper aims at offering a range of tools to better understand the behaviouraland emotional dynamics typically affecting missing people’s relatives duringthe first phases of search and rescue. A few operational guidelines arefurther offered in order to develop targeted psychological support by teams ofprofessionals and a supportive humanitarian approach by rescue teams. Initiallythe paper briefly analyses the importance of significant others for mentalstability, highlighting the importance of empathic understanding of personalexperiences in those instances where uncertainty with regards to the possibledeath of relatives or acquaintances is involved. Behaviours which appear to beinconsistent with the context of reference are then described in light of theacademic knowledge developed in the field of sudden bereavement experiences.The paper is concluded by an analysis of the role of social networks, massmedia and rescue teams.