In the Aftermath of a Black Swan Event: “Inside-Outside” Research on the Impact of the October 7 War

This article presents three authors’ qualitative analysis of personal journals authored by two of them, who were living in Israel during the explosion of violence between the State of Israel and the Hamas movement in Gaza. To provide robust results and enable an “inside-outside” thematic analysis, the third author, in Australia, collaborated with the two Israelis. This collaboration combined the familiarity and affiliation of the insiders with the qualitative distance of an outside perspective. The analysis yielded six themes: shattering of security and emergence of trauma; existential crises and moral dilemmas; embodied and emotional reactions to trauma; projecting and reframing realities; humor and desensitization; and the interplay of hope and search for meaning. These themes illuminate the effort to make sense of the traumatic events and reconstruct a sense of coherence. The study illustrates how trauma erodes a personal and national sense of security. However, processing powerful emotions such as anguish and pain can lead to the creation of a new reality, grounded in compassion and understanding. The findings highlight the resilience of the human spirit and its capacity to adapt and find meaning in the aftermath of a black swan event.