From story to narrative, from alienation to subject: clinic with asylum seekers

Abstract

;In this article, we will aim to highlight the specificity and limits of a transcultural consultation in the Psychiatry Service of the Avicenne Hospital (France) with asylum seekers from Africa and South Asia affected by traumatic experiences that resulted in psychological disturbances. We will try to show that a clinical approach that takes into account the social and political context and the legal status of these "migrant" patients will allow the emergence of the word of the subject. Based on the construction of two case fragments, we will demonstrate how the political and social representations concerning the "migrant", "refugee", "victim", "suspect" leave their concrete and symbolic marks in the subject as well as influence the way the therapy is carried out. This will allow us, in a second step, to question the notion of alienation. Lastly, we will make a clinical proposition that aims to empty the clinical space from the constraints imposed by social representations that silence the subject.

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