Suchergebnisse

AbstractThis article aims to rethink the clinical and social work with forced migrants through the concept of "field" as it is described in the context of Bionian psychoanalysis. The proposed approach goes beyond the individual trauma of the refugee, to arrive at a clinic of the "traumatic field" that includes, but also overcomes, the dyadic relationship searching for the link between intra-psychic, inter-psychic and social dimensions. The work with mediation "devices", the dream field, and the group as a social witness will be discussed as operational tools of a clinical social practice of intervention extended to relevant emerging social contexts.

Since 2015, the arrival in Europe of thousands of asylum-seekers has thrown in crisis the certainties on which our continent has built his common identity, configuring the forced migration issue as a social, political, humanitarian and psychological priority. Researches in the field of refugees and asylum-seekers are mainly focused on their increased risk of psychological distress and psychopathology, but the adverse effects of trauma are also compounded by different post-migration stressors, including living difficulties, unemployment, discrimination. Taking a psychodynamic perspective,the present study aims to look at the forced migration experience as a multilevel phenomen and to explore the migratory experiences of 20 North-African asylum seekers hosted in Italy. In-depth interviews, developed ad hoc, were administered and then analysed by the software T-LAB. The analysis of the interviews showed 4 thematic clusters: Not a human place, Crossing the dark of the Mediterranean Sea, When everything started, Land of care seeking. Repeated traumatic experiences and an ambivalent view of Italy and of the reception centres emerged from narratives. Reflections on the implications of the study in terms of research as well as clinical practice will be outlined.

AbstractThis study provides a culturally sensitive quantitative investigation aimed at assessing the post-traumatic symptomatology, post-migratory difficulties, and resilience of 36 Nigerian male asylum seekers hosted in the province of Caserta, South Italy. A survey composed by the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire-Revised (HTQ-R), the Post-Migratory Checklist (PLMD), and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) was administered to participants. Descriptive and correlation analyses were made in order to describe the mental health risk and protective factors and understand the relation between these. A linear regression analysis was used to evaluate the influence of post-migratory difficulties and resilience on PTSD. Stratified bivariate analyses were also computed to detect PTSD group and no-PTSD group differences about post-migration difficulties and resilience levels. Regression analysis showed that PMLD numbers significantly increased the risk of having PTSD. No significant effect emerged for the level of resilience. Statistically significant differences between the PTSD group and non-PTSD group in relation to post-migratory difficulties were also found. No differences in the resilience factors emerged. The results offer a glimpse into a specific ethnic group of asylum seekers and its mental health risks and protective factors, taking into consideration the specificities of their past and current life-story experiences. Clinical implications for professionals working in the field of forced migration will be outlined.

The recent literature shows an increase of breast cancer in women under 50, however still few are the studies which analyse the impact of the disease in this specific target age. This study aims at exploring the most prevalent topics in Italian cancer blogs of women who have received a breast cancer diagnosis before the age of 50, in order to understand their experience of illness and the characteristics of women's narrations at different times after diagnosis (1 year, 2 years, 3 years). We collected the textual corpus of 4 Italian breast cancer blogs and performed a thematic analysis. Five themes resulted, which, after interpretation using factorial mapping, fall into 3 sense vectors: toward the thought of the experience; from the external to the internal world; breast cancer: from rigidity to mobility. The blog analysis allows to build a first step of the scientific knowledge about the traumatic specificity of this experience, showing a need for processing the emotions. This allows to think about clinical support practices tailored to this group, in order to develop a diachronic processing of the experience and the construction of a new continuity of life.

Considering women living with multiple sclerosis (MS), motherhood may represent a complicated event. Our aim in this study is to explore the personal meanings related to maternity and illness in women living with this disease. We have involved twenty women suffering from MS and we have administered an open interview introduced by a trigger question as a prompt aimed to elicit a narrative of their experience of illness, wishes, doubts, fears and life-projects with regard to motherhood. The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim in order to carry out an analysis of the textual corpus. We have performed the textual analysis of the transcribed interviews through the T-LAB software. Performing a cluster analysis, four thematic clusters emerged: Daily Pain, Relationship with Health Care Services, Closing of a Circle and Family Role. We have interpreted the relationship between these themes using factorial mapping through 3 meaning vectors, representative of the following dynamics: From Concrete to Abstract; From Life-Project to Relapse; From Health Agencies to Family Support. All these meaning-vectors seem to describe the relationship between maternity and illness. Some aspects, as the presence of a stable partner or knowing diagnosis for more than ten years, might represent supporting factors for a project of motherhood. Starting from the results obtained, we provide some proposals for the definition of goals and strategies of psychological counselling within the Health Care Services.