Renos Papadopoulos

University of Essex · Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies

Experiences of adversity can generate positive psychological effects alongside negative impacts. Little research to date has evaluated predictors of post-traumatic growth in mental or community healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Following a survey of 854 community and mental healthcare staff in the United Kingdom in July to September...

People seeking asylum face unique challenges and frequently experience mental health problems. Effective support requires an understanding of their mental health needs in the broader context of their lives, cultures and extreme experiences. This book provides practical guidance for professionals and services working with people seeking asylum in me...

This chapter focuses on refugee families, but the processes that it discusses are also applicable to other forms of migration. The term ‘involuntary dislocation’ is employed to address the uniqueness of these phenomena, emphasizing that under these conditions not only is the family members’ psychosocial state shaken, but their entire being. Hence,...

Introduction The needs of refugees are of pivotal concern internationally. Relational trauma, in particular, is an area that is under-emphasised and under-researched. The strength to strength program (STS) was a rare, innovative relationship and family counselling service for recently-arrived refugees in Sydney, Australia during 2006–2014. The serv...

Background It has been suggested that the biomedical approach towards healthcare professional training may neglect the humanistic nature and personal values of care. As such, discussions with regard to the importance of introducing compassion training into undergraduate programmes and throughout professional practice are of interest. Within this pa...

While the need for psychotherapeutic services for refugees is well documented, little is known about the acceptability and validity of these approaches, especially from refugee and sta¡ perspectives. Qualitative studies of user experience provide critical insight into the utility of current service approaches, and is both clinically and ethically i...

Psychoanalysis has always had to reckon with the epistemology of the witnessing of the analysand, but perhaps it has only recently been reckoning with the discourse of the ethics of testimony. And who are the people who have answered to testify in this book dedicated to the places of the memory of ‘Mediterranean civilisations and their discontents’...

At the outset, I wish to salute Andrew Samuels, my friend and colleague of more than thirty years, for the breath of fresh air he brought into the world of Jungian psychology. His considerable contribution includes theoretical systematisation and innovation, organisational development (as an officer of the International Association for Analytical P...

This paper attempts to develop a new framework within which to comprehend the interrelationship between the ‘inner’ and ‘external’ worlds, between the personal and social, and among the intra-/inter-/trans-psychic realms. It proposes the Umwelt as a heuristic concept to grasp and formulate these interconnections. Then, it argues that if we expand t...

The nature of the refugee phenomenon is examined and the position of mental health professionals is located in relation to it. The various uses of the word ‘trauma’ are explored and its application to the refugee context is examined. It is proposed that refugees’ response to adversity is not limited to being traumatized but includes resilience and...

Until recently, Jungian psychology has been suspicious of academia and remained almost exclusively connected with analytical practice. Attempts by analytical psychologists towards a rapprochement have, by and large, failed because they were based either on inappropriate efforts to fit Jung within an unsuitable paradigm of science or on omnipotent e...

This paper attempts to develop a psychological perspective on the phenomenon of terrorism while attending to the epistemological traps inherent in this kind of endeavour. Etymological, mythological, historical and psychological examinations of terrorism and panic enable the emergence of key characteristics – polarization and indiscriminateness – an...

When refugee families leave their country of origin, they may also leave behind their culture and support systems but not their abilities to overcome the emerging adversities. This article addresses issues concerning the process of refugee families' ‘acculturation’ and adaptation to their new setting in Greek society. It attempts to develop culture...

Analyzing the 9/11 attack on the United States, the author adopts a Jungian methodological approach. He aims to explore the network of interconnections between the collective and the intra-psychic and to define a context for reflection free of an exclusively psychological epistemology. Terrorism is defined as an extreme form of polarization and vag...

Families of refugees tend to evoke many powerful responses in all who come into contact with them. Loss and trauma, helplessness and victimhood, transition and change are some of the main themes that seem to dominate. In particular, in contact with mental health professionals, refugee families are more likely to be seen as ‘traumatized’ and their r...

In this paper, the theme of the other will be examined and it will be argued that it is important to differentiate between two distinct types of other--the 'exotic' other which is distant and very different from the subject, and the 'familiar' other which is closer to the subject. The dynamic relationship between these two others will be investigat...

Book reviewed in this article: Alister, Ian and Hauke, Christopher (eds.), Contemporary Jungian Analysis. Post-Jungian Perspectives from the Society of Analytical Psychology

This article outlines some key elements of therapeutic work with a group of Bosnian medical evacuees and their families. The unusual feature of this work has been the fact that the clients had not requested any psychological assistance and the therapist had to adapt to this fact and develop ways of dealing with it. The approach followed emphasizes...

In this paper, destructiveness is approached as a multi-dimensional phenomenon where the mental health perspective addresses only one of these dimensions. An attempt is made to locate this phenomenon in the context of epistemological and societal considerations. Critical of mono-dimensional explanations based on causal-reductive epistemology, the p...

The relationship between fantasy, in waking and sleeping states, has long been of interest in clinical contexts and has recently attracted some experimental investigation. Clinical observations, especially those of C.G. Jung, suggest a relationship between the discharge of bizarre, irrational and highly affective unconscious fantasy material during...