Adèle Davanture and Daniel Derivois
Meta-analyses indicate that migrants and refugees develop more mental health problems than the general population as a result of their exposure to armed conflict, violence and…
Abstract
Purpose
Meta-analyses indicate that migrants and refugees develop more mental health problems than the general population as a result of their exposure to armed conflict, violence and torture together with their experiences prior to, during and after resettlement. The purpose of this paper is to experience a tool that allows analysing how migrants and refugees represent the world and how they self-represent in the world.
Design/methodology/approach
The aim is to design a projective tool called “Self Cartography” to facilitate the production of migration stories, based on narratives.
Findings
The self-cartography tool revealed the psychological suffering generated by the brutality and violence of exile. The narratives about the pre-migratory phase appear to be more complex and more painful than the migratory and post-migratory phases.
Research limitations/implications
The preliminary interviews in the exploratory phase have raised certain methodological biases, such as the size of the map, which is currently in A2 format. It was described by some participants as being too large and a source of anxiety.
Practical implications
The purpose of this work is to conceptualise a standardised projective tool that can be used by researchers and professionals responsible for making therapeutic assessments and supporting individuals in migration situations.
Social implications
This tool aims to facilitate better social integration for migrants and refugees.
Originality/value
The self-cartography tool opens up the boundaries of narrativity in a geo-temporal space shared with the clinician. Using the world as a means to self-narrate can be thought of as an attempt to rewrite the collective and individual traumatic histories of our humanity.
Details
Keywords
We live in a world marked at the same time by collective traumas and suffering of identity. The purpose of this paper is to stimulate reflection on the links between resilience…
Abstract
Purpose
We live in a world marked at the same time by collective traumas and suffering of identity. The purpose of this paper is to stimulate reflection on the links between resilience and identity at the individual and collective levels.
Design/methodology/approach
This is an opinion piece using global collective history to put into perspective some psychological aspects of suffering of identity which mental health and social professionals may face in their practices.
Findings
These transformations affect the mental health of people facing multiple choices ranging from the risk of a fantasy of resilient identities to the possibility of a process of identity resilience.
Originality/value
To face this major challenge, professionals should be trained in the global history and anthropology of intercultural relations, to better support patients traumatized by identity threats in a process of resilience.