<p>Three types of life recovery patterns from disaster damages, that are, recovery back to what a life used to be (recovery), reconstruction of new active life styles (reconstruction), and retreat into a depressive state (retreat), were deduced from various disaster psychological findings, and also generated from the results of a preceding questionnaire survey. To examine the validity of the typology, a questionnaire survey was conducted in 2003 in the region hit by the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. The results showed that three types were differentiated clearly, and that the respondents were approximately distributed 70% for recovery, 20% for reconstruction, and 10% for retreat. The determinants and specific characteristics of these three types of victims were also investigated.</p>