Date: September 24, 2011
Time: 8:30 am - 1:00 pm
Location: The Conference Center at Sheppard Pratt
6501 N. Charles Street - Towson, MD
The Trauma of Dislocation
Separation from a familiar ecological surround is a frequent
accompaniment of migration. Rupture of the waking screen,
loss of valued possessions, and alteration in man-animal
relationship also occur in such circumstances. All this mobilizes
disorienting anxieties, mental pain, and mourning. Individuals
suffering from geographical dislocation experience: figureground
disharmony; loss of capacity for synaethesia;
dysjunction between actions and their contexts; and
discordance with the prevalent attitudes towards time.
To cope with all this, they mobilize defensive measures
including fantasies and actions of repudiation, return, replication,
reunion and reparation.
Therapists treating geographically dislocated individuals
should be culturally sensitive and judiciously adapt the
therapeutic frame to the patient’s needs.
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