A Psychoanalytic Approach to Refugee Mental Health: Safe Harbor
Book Details
- Publisher : Routledge
- Published : September 2025
- Cover : Paperback
- Pages : 168
- Category :
Forthcoming - Category 2 :
Psychoanalysis - Catalogue No : 98201
- ISBN 13 : 9781041071372
- ISBN 10 : 104107137X
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A Psychoanalytic Approach to Refugee Mental Health reflects on psychoanalytic work with vulnerable people during the refugee crisis.
Chrysi Giannoulaki describes her work as a supervisor of groups of caregivers dealing with the mental health of refugees in Athens. The book explores work with complex refugee cases that involve major economic, political, and social issues, with victims of sexual violence, and with unaccompanied minors. Exploring the potential of psychoanalytic theory of trauma and psychosis, clinical psychoanalytic thinking to foster integration, and tolerance of the extremely traumatized individual within networks of social relations, the book acts protectively against moments of xenophobia and polarization.
A Psychoanalytic Approach to Refugee Mental Health will be essential reading for psychoanalytically informed mental health professionals, especially those working with refugees, asylum seekers and vulnerable patients.
Reviews and Endorsements
A remarkable book as it exposes the complex destinies of refugees through encounters with individuals and groups. The author uses herself as a tool in understanding the unique mental and social situations of the “Refugee People” in a way that makes the reader understand better what it means to be a human being under such extreme circumstances. In this way, they come alive in the reader's mind and hopefully also contribute to the better of an important group of our fellow human beings.
Sverre Varvin, Professor Emeritus, OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University, Training Analyst Norwegian Psychoanalytic Society
A Psychoanalytic Approach to Refugee Mental Health: Safe Harbor is a groundbreaking exploration that offers profound insights into human resilience, trauma, and healing. By illuminating the complex psychological landscapes of refugees and their caregivers, Chrysi Giannoulaki provides a compassionate, nuanced approach to understanding displacement, violence, and the restoration of human connection. The book is a vital contribution to our understanding of trauma and the transformative potential of psychoanalytic practice.”
Danielle Knafo, author of Living with Terror, Working with Trauma: A Clinician’s Handbook
This book addresses a crucial current problem: the movement of refugee populations whose tragic adversity in integrating into a foreign society is exacerbated by a lack of understanding of their mental reality. Dr Chrysi Giannoulaki, with her empathy and scientific systematicity, highlights the difficulties of communicating with people from different cultural traditions. Reading this book is particularly interesting and valuable for those involved in helping refugees. It is about expanding the possibilities when dealing with a permanent feature of contemporary global political and cultural development.
Dr Nikolaos Tzavaras, Honorary President of the Hellenic Psychiatric Association, Training Analyst of the Hellenic Psychoanalytic Society
Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Language and Silence
2. Dream and Daydreaming
3. Male Friendship and Homosexuality
4. Violence and Women
5. Identity and Mourning
6. Forms of Repetition
7. “Difficult” Refugees and Sex-work
8. Mourning and Nostalgia
9. Psychosis and Violence
10. Understanding and Explaining Ruptures and Reconstruction
11. Counter-Transference and Xenos
12. Intergenerational Transmission: Memory and Oblivion
Conclusion
About the Author(s)
Chrysi Giannoulaki is a psychiatrist and a training analyst of the Hellenic Psychoanalytic Society. She is a full member of the Psychiatry and Art Section of the Hellenic Psychiatric Association, whose actions aim to enhance awareness of racism and xenophobia. Chrysi has been working with refugees since 2016.
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