Etnopsychiatrische perspectieven op migratie en vlucht

Ethnopsychiatric perspectives on migration and exile

Marie Rose Moro may be considered the figurehead of current ethnopsychiatry. Since the 1960s this French current in psychiatry and psychoanalysis has emphasized the psychological function of culture in general with every culture as a holding or containing and meaning-generating system. It has formulated views of what a human being is, what can be considered as a cause of illness, and furthermore how healing can be brought about (ontologies, etiologies and therapies that are specific to each culture apart). Moro further describes creative and problematic variations in cultural transformation processes in migrants (métissage culturel; the interweaving of cultures into a containing envelope) and reflects upon these processes in a clinical context and from a psychoanalytical point of view. She has recently developed a special interest in how traumatization of refugees can reverse or annihilate cultural embeddedness, and how therapeutic work on cultural rerooting, interweaving and transformation can contribute to post-traumatic growth and promote resilience in refugees.