Charles Fritz's Tribe Analysis

“Why do large scale disasters produce such mentally healthy conditions?” (52-53 Junger). This question was formed by Charles Fritz and it commenced his long paper that discussed the improvement in mental health in people, as a result of war and other detrimental conditions occurring within a community. Specifically, this question was originally derived the communities in London, more generally England, and Germany. Germans began to bomb London and then further acts of war had been carried out. This event that occurred in these communities became more modernly observed through the work of Charles Fritz and his team of 25 other researchers. As seen through the novel Tribe, by Sebastian Junger, and throughout various scholarly journals and articles,

In Tribe, Junger presents the observations and research of the great sociologist Emile Durkheim. The text states “The positive effects of war on mental health were first noticed when … even as the German army rolled into the city in 1940” (48 Junger). This demonstrates that the conflicts of war and other detrimental factors corresponding to war, such as bombardments, actually strengthen the mentality of individuals because they unite as a community in order to get through the hard times that war creates. As a result, this problem-solving interaction, increases the social interaction between people, which directly improves mental health. This is because socialization can positively influence the mentality and well-being of individuals. Also, a source that qualifies this idea of how conflicts, such as war, can have a positive influence of the mental health of individuals is titled Understanding resilience in armed conflict: Social resources and mental health of children in Burundi. The author of this article, Brian J. Hall, explained that “The present study provides the first longitudinal evidence of the role of cognitive social capital in war-affected children … and functional impairment between each measurement lag. These findings extend previous research that shows a cross-sectional relationship between these constructs” (124 Hall). War can positively impact mental health because it helps to develop and increase the amount of social interaction between people who may be experiencing conflict together. Therefore, these individuals who had experienced war-related conflicts became mentally stronger because they endured through the hardship of war with one