Psyche
Volume 48, Issue 12, 1994, Pages 1101-1122

The search for historical truth: psychotherapeutic work with Bosnian refugees [Die Suche nach der historischen Wahrheit: Psychotherapeutische Arbeit mit bosnischen Flüchtlingen.] (Article)

Laub D.* , Weine S.M.
  • a [Affiliation not available]
  • b [Affiliation not available]

Abstract

The trauma haunting refugees from ex-Yugoslavia is inextricably bound up with complex processes of historical change. In order to be able to understand and treat their severe psychic problems, psychotherapists have to go in search of the historical truth, which is frequently masked by myths and obsolete notions. Only when a psychotherapist who has received the relevant interdisciplinary schooling acknowledges the existence of completely new historical experiences can s/he provide effective support for Bosnian Muslims fleeing "ethnic cleansing" and attempting to achieve self-healing, learning and growth after such an extreme form of collective and individual destruction. In this way the psychotherapist becomes an initiated listener and a unique witness of a form of historical truth that for the traumatized patients themselves is at first entirely or largely beyond recall and comprehension.

Author Keywords

[No Keywords available]

Index Keywords

doctor patient relation political system civil disorder Physician-Patient Relations Civil Disorders refugee psychological aspect methodology social change Islam interpersonal communication human Refugees Bosnia and Herzegovina Political Systems religion Bosnia-Herzegovina sociology Truth Disclosure social problem Religion and Psychology psychoanalysis Psychoanalytic Therapy Article posttraumatic stress disorder Race Relations Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic English Abstract

Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-0028712844&partnerID=40&md5=dbc1504a058d346172fb2d2d7e4ebf3a

ISSN: 00332623
Cited by: 8
Original Language: German