Inger Agger

• Advisor at Nunca Mas - International Network for Human Rights and Psychosocial Response

This chapter introduces a 3-year study that explored through case studies on Guatemala, East Jerusalem, Indian Kashmir, Mozambique, Northern Ireland, South Africa and Sri Lanka how best to intervene from a psychosocial perspective following armed conflict so as to maximise the potential to contribute to constructive social change. The chapter explo...

After catastrophic events in which people's survival has been threatened, as happened during the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia 1975-1979, some continue to suffer from painful mental symptoms. Surveys carried out in Cambodia based on Western diagnostic categories have found a high prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and...

Introduction: Traumatizing events, such as torture, cause considerable impairments in psycho-social functioning. In developing countries, where torture is often perpetrated, few resources exist for the provision of therapeutic or rehabilitating interventions. The current study investigated the effectiveness of Testimonial Therapy (TT) as a brief p...

This study explores the therapeutic implications of including culturally adapted spiritual ceremonies in the process of testimonial therapy for torture survivors in India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, and the Philippines. Data were collected through an action research process with Asian mental health and human rights organizations, during which the testimo...

Many of the political refugees who have arrived in Denmark during the past decade have psychosomatic symptoms related to experiences of sexual torture during imprisonment. On the basis of clinical experience from treatment of traumatized refugees, the authors suggest a biopsychosocial approach to symptoms. This implies that therapists respect the s...

In developing countries where torture is perpetrated, there are few resources for the provision of therapeutic assistance to the survivors. The testimonial method represents a brief cross-cultural psychosocial approach to trauma, which is relatively easy to master. The method was first described in Chile in 1983 and has since been used in many vari...

Among professionals working with the rehabilitation of torture survivors, discussions are ongoing about the most appropriate methods for psychological assistance to the survivors in different geopolitical contexts. This article is a preliminary descriptive and exploratory study of psycho-legal counseling—a counseling method employed by the Indian h...

Book InformationPsychosocial Wellness of Refugees: Issues in Qualitative and Quantitative Research. Edited by Frederick L. Ahern. Berghahn Books. Oxford. 2000. Pp. xiv +251. Hardback, £40, 1 57181 204 0. Paperback, £14, 1 57181 205 9.

Presents a model therapeutic environment, "The Blue Room," for treatment of women who were victims of human rights violations. Ss had been in prison and had been tortured; others had close relatives who had been tortured or murdered. Experiences from meetings with women from Latin America (who had been in Denmark an average of 12 yrs) and Middle Ea...

In accordance with the view of many political refugees, we regard the exile of victims as part of the political repression of the country of origin. The activities in the home country against individuals who have individually or collectively resisted social and economic exploitation have been met by dictatorial or other forms of authoritarian perse...

Recently, Western clinicians have met an increasing number of victims of organized violence who, as political refugees, have sought asylum here. On basis of literature-studies and research carried out by the authors, the article gives an overview of present knowledge about the composition of the refugee population in Denmark, and the need of psychi...

Testimony as a ritual both of healing and of condemnation of injustice would seem to be a universal phenomenon. The concept of testimony contains both connotations of something subjective or private, and of something objective, judicial, or political. When political refugees give testimony to the torture to which they have been subjected, the traum...

Not much is known about the repressive use of sexuality against political prisoners. It is important to gain a better understanding of the trauma involved in sexual torture for treatment purposes. On the basis of clinical experience with refugees from the Middle East, North Africa, and Latin America, and the collection of mainly unpublished materia...

Estimates show that a large number of Latin American refugees are divorced in exile. Presumably, the family system has difficulty adapting to the sudden change in its ecology. Both the social and personal creative identity are threatened in exile, and therapeutic help must therefore be offered both at the individual and social level. One important...

Agger, I. & Jensen, S.B. (1989). Trauma, meeting and meaning—significant concepts in transcultural psychotherapy for political refugees. Nordisk Psykologi, 41, 177–192.Organized violence poses Western clinicians with fundamental questions concerning the problem of meaning. The number of political refugees in Western countries, although relatively f...

Agger, I. (1988). The therapeutic testimony. A political prisoner from El Salvador gives testimony: Testimony as a trans-cultural therapeutic method. Nordisk Psykologi, 40, 93–105.From ancient times across the world men and women have told each other about their pain. They have given testimony about the injustice. In the women's liberation movement...

Agger, I. et al.: Torture victims—on the psychotherapy of refugees who have been submitted to torture. Nordisk Psykologi, 1985, 37 (3), 177–192.The article describes the physical, psychological and social sequels to the trauma of torture, and gives a proposal for psychological treatment. The following areas are considered; the symptoms which compel...

Describes the physical, psychological, and social sequelae to the trauma of torture and presents a proposal for psychological treatment. The following areas are considered: the symptoms that compel the torture victim to seek treatment, the reaction of the environment to these symptoms, the psychological core of the trauma of torture, psychotherapeu...

[discuss] the psychotherapeutic process under [state terrorism in treating posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)] draw on the experiences of a number of Chilean therapists who have had to develop their work under conditions of state terrorism / highlight some general aspects of the problem of subjective countertransference in post-traumatic therap...