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Renos Papadopoulos's book, already planned for review in this section of the Journal, has never been so timely in giving us valuable understanding and reflections on the current refugee crisis.
Professor Papadopoulos is a globally recognized academic, Jungian analyst and practitioner in the field of refugee care, and the recipient of multiple awards for his work. He has written an unparalleled and original book which eloquently reflects the culmination of a lifetime's experience undertaking clinical, psychosocial work and research with refugees.
This book is not located in the area of Jungian studies as such, nevertheless it reflects the spirit of Jungian thinking and it can be understood as an innovative extension of Jungian theorizing. It radically embraces some of Jung's positions regarding the functioning of the mind: e.g. enantiodromia, resilience, the dynamics of opposites, Jung's humble position as a therapist in the face of the compensatory and self-healing processes of the mind, to name but a few.
The main emphasis of the book highlights the importance for scholars, researchers, clinicians and practitioners in the field to maintain epistemological vigilance, i.e. to scrutinize the ways they conceptualize phenomena, especially in relation to ‘involuntarily dislocated’ people, alerting us all to the dangers of various forms of ‘epistemological acting out’. The author carries out a careful investigation of the components and pitfalls that all of us encounter, especially well-meaning psychologists and psychotherapists, when we use certain categories of thinking to understand adverse situations and inform our actions. With insight and a broad vision Papadopoulos considers all kinds of inappropriate modes of collusion with societal discourses, and he explicitly and implicitly points these out.
Meticulously restructuring the vocabulary - and also the grammar and semantics - of the field of refugee care, the first pillar to fall is that of the very categorization of th