Abstract

This article proposes a methodology for addressing disruptive scenarios by integrating theoretical insights from Moty Benyakar and Michel Fariña with a case study of the Emergency Medical Care System (SAME) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Grounded in the concepts of disruption and catastrophe, the study argues that catastrophes affect both victims and intervening personnel in distinct ways, and that distinguishing these modalities is essential to orient effective interventions. The paper further advances the role of art as a mediating device that translates traumatic reality into symbolic inscription, facilitating clinical and ethical work in crisis contexts. Rembrandt’s The Storm on the Sea of Galilee is presented as a clinical articulator: its pictorial content operates as a potent metaphor for intervention in catastrophic events, while the painting’s history as one of the most significant art thefts reframes intervention through the motif of the empty frame. The empty frame functions as a promise of restitution that frames without erasing the trace of what occurred, thereby opening a space for an ethics of intervention that acknowledges loss while enabling symbolic repair. The proposed methodology aims to inform practice and policy for emergency response by combining conceptual clarity with aesthetic and ethical sensitivity.

Keywords: Disruption | Art | Ethics | Interventions