Dealing with the mental scars of disasters

Experience gained from 2008 Sichuan earthquake helps psychologist develop national body to treat trauma

One month after a magnitude 8 earthquake hit the southwestern province of Sichuan on May 12, 2008, traces of crumbled hills, fallen boulders and collapsed houses stood as reminders of the tremor. When night fell, a sorrowful mood gripped the region.

The same month, Wu Kankan, a first-year graduate student in applied psychology at the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, arrived in Beichuan county, one of the worst-hit areas near the epicenter.