Sverre Varvin
Biographic Data
| ID | 219796 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sverre Varvin |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sverre |
| FAMILY NAME | Varvin |
| SIGNATURE | VARVIN S |
| AFFILIATIONS | OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1559-8335 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 38 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 58 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 38 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1989 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Psychoanalytic Field Work for Refugees Exposed to Human Rights Violations
Human Rights Violations (HRVs) are widespread and frequent and may lead to serious disturbances to individuals' mental health, to families, social groups and to the fundaments of societies. It is well‐documented that early, timely and adequate responses and interventions may ameliorate mental suffering and functioning of individuals, families and groups. In this article, a psychoanalytically based approach, Psychoanalytic Field Work, mental healt…
A cross- sectional study of refugees in Norway and Serbia: Levels of mental distress and social-demographic risk factors
This cross-sectional study has assessed and compared symptoms of anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among one refugee group during flight (in Serbia) and another refugee group after flight (in Norway). Results indicate high levels of mental distress in both samples of refugees (Serbia: N = 100, Norway: N = 78). Participants in Serbia reported higher levels of symptoms than the participants in Norway. Moreover, the study…
Traumatic events, posttraumatic states, and the debate on aetiology
The concept of psychological trauma implies a causal relation between the traumatic event and subsequent psychopathology. Difficulties in defining the characteristics of causal agent and establishing its firm correlation with signs and symptoms of disorder stem from the paradoxes embedded in the concept of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which ignores unconscious dynamics of posttraumatic states. In this article, we argue that the impact of…
A psicanálise e a terceira posição: Convulsões Sociais E Atrocidade
Atualmente, muitas situações caracterizam-se pela rutura da ordem e da estrutura, deixando as pessoas à mercê de forças desorganizadas (máquinas de guerra, traficantes de seres humanos, etc.), o que tem como consequência a desumanização de pessoas comuns em larga escala, especialmente no domínio dos refugiados. O artigo centra-se na forma como discursos alienantes sobre o "trauma" e a negligência das sociedades em relação às pessoas traumatizadas…
Psychoanalysis and the third position: Social upheavals and atrocity
Many situations are now characterized by a breakdown of order and structure, leaving people at the peril of unorganized forces (war machines, human traffickers, etc.) resulting in the dehumanizing of ordinary people on a mass scale, especially in the refugee field. The paper focuses on how alienating discourses on "trauma" and society's neglect of traumatized people increase suffering and have grave consequences for coming generations. It reflect…
Trauma and Memory
A theory of traumatic memory was developed by Breuer and Freud in “Studies on Hysteria” based on Charcot’s theory on the traumatic origin of mental disorders. This was again developed in DSM-III in 1980 with the introduction of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), where traumatic memory was conceptualized as a core of the syndrome and set in causal relationship with its manifestations. This implied that “trauma” tended to be seen as something st…
Imagine, 7 Years Without a Future”: A Qualitative Study of Rejected Asylum Seekers' Life Conditions in Norway
Asylum seekers are in an extraordinary situation as their future life depend on decisions made by authorities in a bewildering, bureaucratic system, with excessive waiting and unpredictable timeframes. Those that are not granted asylum, and not able to return to their country of origin, can neither spatially nor temporally visualize if, when or how a potential change is going to occur. This paper is part of a larger study based on narrative inter…
Negotiating identity at the intersection of family legacy and present time life conditions: A qualitative exploration of central issues connected to identity and belonging in the lives of children of …
INTRODUCTION: Most studies on refugee populations are organized around trauma-related issues and focus on explanations of pathological factors. Few studies are anchored in general developmental psychology with the aim of exploring normal age-specific developmental tasks and how the special circumstances associated with forced migration can influence that development. METHODS: Using an ecological and transactional understanding of developmental tr…
The Past, the Present, and the Future: A Qualitative Study Exploring How Refugees' Experience of Time Influences Their Mental Health and Well-Being
The experience of time has a decisive influence on refugees' well-being and suffering in all phases of their flight experiences. Basic safety is connected both developmentally and in present life with a feeling of continuity and predictability. Refugees often experience disruption of this basic sense of time in their home country due to war, persecution, and often severe traumatization, during flight, due to unpredictable and dangerous circumstan…
I tell my mother that … sometimes he didn’t love us –Young adults’ experiences of childhood in refugee families: A qualitative approach
In addition to managing dual cultural identities, children of refugees face the potential burden of living with caregivers struggling in the aftermath of trauma, loss, and adversity. Using an ecological and transactional understanding of child development, this qualitative study explored the subjective experiences of young adults who grew up in a refugee family in Norway. Findings show that parental suffering have affected their daily life and de…
The essay method’ a qualitative method for studying therapeutic dialogues
This paper presents a qualitative research method for analysing therapeutic dialogues called ‘the essay method’. A central part of the method uses the format of the literary essay as a model. The method consists of a close monitoring of clinical material guided by an overall psychoanalytic/psychodynamic theoretical frame. It combines both clinical details and global patterns of clinical material and is especially fitted for studying relational qu…
Psychoanalysis in Asia: China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan
Psychoanalysis in Asia
Our Relations to Refugees: Between Compassion and Dehumanization
Fundamentalist mindset
Fundamentalism has increasingly become a part of the political discourse in western countries and is to a large degree associated Islamic Jihadism. Fundamentalism has, however, been a concern in all religions, especially in Christianity where the term has its origin more than 100 years ago. Fundamentalism is also a concern in professional organisations and this paper starts with a discussion of the relation between fundaments and fundamentalist t…
Unconscious phantasy and its conceptualizations: An attempt at conceptual integration
That there is a lack of consensus as to how to decide between competing, at times even contradictory theories, and about how to integrate divergent concepts and theories is well known. In view of this situation, the IPA Committee on Conceptual Integration (2009-2013) developed a method for comparing the different versions of any given concept, together with the underlying theories and fundamental assumptions on which they are based. Only when sit…
What can we expect from trainee therapists? A study of acquisition of competence in dynamic psychotherapy
This study focuses on training in dynamic psychotherapy. Sessions deriving from the final phase of psychodynamic therapies (N = 21) performed by clinical trainees in an intensive psychodynamic psychotherapy training programme lasting 2 years were analysed for their level of psychotherapeutic competence. Research questions were: (i) To what extent do the trainees reflect strategic thinking in their clinical work? (ii) What characterises therapeuti…
Letter from Prague
I was a young student hitchhiking in the eastern part of Europe and arrived in Prague early one morning. Wandering around in the centre of Prague was a ghost‐like experience. Few people in the stre
Towards a better use of psychoanalytic concepts: A model illustrated using the concept of enactment
It is well known that there is a lack of consensus about how to decide between competing and sometimes mutually contradictory theories, and how to integrate divergent concepts and theories. In view of this situation the IPA Project Committee on Conceptual Integration developed a method that allows comparison between different versions of concepts, their underlying theories and basic assumptions. Only when placed in a frame of reference can simila…
Psychoanalysen mit traumatisierten Patienten Trennung, Krankheit, Gewalt
Phenomena or research data? Qualitative and quantitative strategies in psychoanalysis
The main focus in this paper is method in psychoanalytic research. The author analyses the relation between qualitative and quantitative research and differences and controversies concerning epistemology, method, analysis of data, quality of data, results and validation. He demonstrates what characterises qualitative research and its application and claims that this method is important and relevant for psychoanalytic research in that it can, in a…
Love and otherness Comments on the paper “Some thoughts on happy and unhappy love”
The influence of extreme traumatization on body, mind and social relations
Extreme traumatization affects the individual's relation to others in several social and psychological ways. The post-traumatic experiences are characterized by helplessness, insecurity, anxiety, loss of basic trust, and fragmentation of perspectives on one's own life. Special considerations should be given to the destruction of the ability to regulate negative emotions (extreme fear, distress, anguish, anger, rage, shame) in relation to others a…
Humiliation and the victim identity in conditions of political and violent conflict
The humiliation and traumatization of political opponents during periods of violent and non-violent conflict can create deadlocked situations with great potential for regression, and may serve to aggravate the conflict or escalate the level of violence. In this article, I will examine this type of regressive dynamic. My point of departure is the current terror situation and the “war against terror” as it is being conducted in different parts of t…
Extreme Traumatisation: Strategies for Mental Survival
Disruption and loss characterise the life of the person who has undergone extreme traumatisation (torture, concentration camp, etc.), especially when he/she lives in exile. This presents new challenges both in understanding trauma and massive traumatisation and in treating it. When planning and conducting treatment, it is of special importance to take into consideration the mental survival strategies that the person has developed. These are menta…
Towards a better use of psychoanalytic concepts: A model illustrated using the concept of enactment
It is well known that there is a lack of consensus about how to decide between competing and sometimes mutually contradictory theories, and how to integrate divergent concepts and theories. In view of this situation the IPA Project Committee on Conceptual Integration developed a method that allows comparison between different versions of concepts, their underlying theories and basic assumptions. Only when placed in a frame of reference can simila…
Unconscious phantasy and its conceptualizations: An attempt at conceptual integration
That there is a lack of consensus as to how to decide between competing, at times even contradictory theories, and about how to integrate divergent concepts and theories is well known. In view of this situation, the IPA Committee on Conceptual Integration (2009-2013) developed a method for comparing the different versions of any given concept, together with the underlying theories and fundamental assumptions on which they are based. Only when sit…
The influence of extreme traumatization on body, mind and social relations
Extreme traumatization affects the individual's relation to others in several social and psychological ways. The post-traumatic experiences are characterized by helplessness, insecurity, anxiety, loss of basic trust, and fragmentation of perspectives on one's own life. Special considerations should be given to the destruction of the ability to regulate negative emotions (extreme fear, distress, anguish, anger, rage, shame) in relation to others a…
The Past, the Present, and the Future: A Qualitative Study Exploring How Refugees' Experience of Time Influences Their Mental Health and Well-Being
The experience of time has a decisive influence on refugees' well-being and suffering in all phases of their flight experiences. Basic safety is connected both developmentally and in present life with a feeling of continuity and predictability. Refugees often experience disruption of this basic sense of time in their home country due to war, persecution, and often severe traumatization, during flight, due to unpredictable and dangerous circumstan…
Imagine, 7 Years Without a Future”: A Qualitative Study of Rejected Asylum Seekers' Life Conditions in Norway
Asylum seekers are in an extraordinary situation as their future life depend on decisions made by authorities in a bewildering, bureaucratic system, with excessive waiting and unpredictable timeframes. Those that are not granted asylum, and not able to return to their country of origin, can neither spatially nor temporally visualize if, when or how a potential change is going to occur. This paper is part of a larger study based on narrative inter…
A Refugee Protest Action in a Host Country: Possibilities and Limitations of an Intervention by a Mental Health Unit
In February 1994, a group of Bosnian refugees left their reception centre, prescribed by the refugee authorities in Norway, and settled at the Central Railway Station in Oslo as a protest action against their conditions at the reception centre. The episode immediately attracted much media interest, and the Psychosocial Centre for Refugees at the University of Oslo was asked by the Directorate of Immigration to make an examination and evaluation o…
What can we expect from trainee therapists? A study of acquisition of competence in dynamic psychotherapy
This study focuses on training in dynamic psychotherapy. Sessions deriving from the final phase of psychodynamic therapies (N = 21) performed by clinical trainees in an intensive psychodynamic psychotherapy training programme lasting 2 years were analysed for their level of psychotherapeutic competence. Research questions were: (i) To what extent do the trainees reflect strategic thinking in their clinical work? (ii) What characterises therapeuti…
Humiliation and the victim identity in conditions of political and violent conflict
The humiliation and traumatization of political opponents during periods of violent and non-violent conflict can create deadlocked situations with great potential for regression, and may serve to aggravate the conflict or escalate the level of violence. In this article, I will examine this type of regressive dynamic. My point of departure is the current terror situation and the “war against terror” as it is being conducted in different parts of t…
Which patients should avoid psychoanalysis, and which professionals should avoid psychoanalytic training: A critical evaluation
This paper discusses contraindications to psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic training. From Freud onwards, there has been a clear understanding that not all patients are helped by psychoanalysis, but there has been considerable controversy as to who might benefit from treatment, and whether this depends on the diagnosis, the personality or the rather vague concept of “analysability". Increasing emphasis has been placed on the analyst-patient relat…
Genocide and ethnic cleansing. Psychoanalytic and social-psychological viewpoints
The author tries to set ethnic cleansing and genocide in relation to both psychoanalytic understanding of the human mind and of groups, and to certain aspects of modern society and modernism. Following the Polish sociologist Zygmund Bauman, he claims that genocidal situations can be a product of certain properties of modern society which under certain situations (i.e., under totalitarian conditions) can come into being. Malignant group processes …
Psychoanalysis and the third position: Social upheavals and atrocity
Many situations are now characterized by a breakdown of order and structure, leaving people at the peril of unorganized forces (war machines, human traffickers, etc.) resulting in the dehumanizing of ordinary people on a mass scale, especially in the refugee field. The paper focuses on how alienating discourses on "trauma" and society's neglect of traumatized people increase suffering and have grave consequences for coming generations. It reflect…
Fundamentalist mindset
Fundamentalism has increasingly become a part of the political discourse in western countries and is to a large degree associated Islamic Jihadism. Fundamentalism has, however, been a concern in all religions, especially in Christianity where the term has its origin more than 100 years ago. Fundamentalism is also a concern in professional organisations and this paper starts with a discussion of the relation between fundaments and fundamentalist t…
Phenomena or research data? Qualitative and quantitative strategies in psychoanalysis
The main focus in this paper is method in psychoanalytic research. The author analyses the relation between qualitative and quantitative research and differences and controversies concerning epistemology, method, analysis of data, quality of data, results and validation. He demonstrates what characterises qualitative research and its application and claims that this method is important and relevant for psychoanalytic research in that it can, in a…
Den Tänkande Kroppen
(1998). DEN TANKANDE KROPPEN. The Scandinavian Psychoanalytic Review: Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 216-219
Fyra Röster Om Jacques Lacan/Écrits
Katharsis. Sjælens Renselse I Psykoanalyse Og Tragedie
Psykoanalysen I Norge
Genocide and ethnic cleansing. Psychoanalytic and social-psychological viewpoints
The author tries to set ethnic cleansing and genocide in relation to both psychoanalytic understanding of the human mind and of groups, and to certain aspects of modern society and modernism. Following the Polish sociologist Zygmund Bauman, he claims that genocidal situations can be a product of certain properties of modern society which under certain situations (i.e., under totalitarian conditions) can come into being. Malignant group processes …
Obituary
A Refugee Protest Action in a Host Country: Possibilities and Limitations of an Intervention by a Mental Health Unit
In February 1994, a group of Bosnian refugees left their reception centre, prescribed by the refugee authorities in Norway, and settled at the Central Railway Station in Oslo as a protest action against their conditions at the reception centre. The episode immediately attracted much media interest, and the Psychosocial Centre for Refugees at the University of Oslo was asked by the Directorate of Immigration to make an examination and evaluation o…
Time, space and causality
This article discusses some basic problems of the theory of science connected with understanding the psychoanalytic process. The epistemology of psychoanalysis is seen in relation to the specific status of time, space and causality. It is argued that in psychic life, time and space cannot be a priori categories in the Kantian sense because they are constituted in psychic development and in the dynamics of the psyche and can be abolished in psycho…
Den Tänkande Kroppen
(1998). DEN TANKANDE KROPPEN. The Scandinavian Psychoanalytic Review: Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 216-219
Inte Som Vi. Psykologiska Aspekter På Främlings Fientlighet Och Rasism/Att Ha Rätt. Om Övertygelse, Tolerans Och Fundamentalism
(1999). INTE SOM VI. PSYKOLOGISKA ASPEKTER PÅ FRÄMLINGS FIENTLIGHET OCH RASISM/ATT HA RÄTT. OM ÖVERTYGELSE, TOLERANS OCH FUNDAMENTALISM. The Scandinavian Psychoanalytic Review: Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 295-300
The rôle of psychoanalysis as theoretical system and treatment method in future psychiatry: A Panel
Den Tunna Hinnan Mellan Omsorg Och Grymhet
Obituaries
Extreme Traumatisation: Strategies for Mental Survival
Disruption and loss characterise the life of the person who has undergone extreme traumatisation (torture, concentration camp, etc.), especially when he/she lives in exile. This presents new challenges both in understanding trauma and massive traumatisation and in treating it. When planning and conducting treatment, it is of special importance to take into consideration the mental survival strategies that the person has developed. These are menta…
Which patients should avoid psychoanalysis, and which professionals should avoid psychoanalytic training: A critical evaluation
This paper discusses contraindications to psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic training. From Freud onwards, there has been a clear understanding that not all patients are helped by psychoanalysis, but there has been considerable controversy as to who might benefit from treatment, and whether this depends on the diagnosis, the personality or the rather vague concept of “analysability". Increasing emphasis has been placed on the analyst-patient relat…
Humiliation and the victim identity in conditions of political and violent conflict
The humiliation and traumatization of political opponents during periods of violent and non-violent conflict can create deadlocked situations with great potential for regression, and may serve to aggravate the conflict or escalate the level of violence. In this article, I will examine this type of regressive dynamic. My point of departure is the current terror situation and the “war against terror” as it is being conducted in different parts of t…
The influence of extreme traumatization on body, mind and social relations
Extreme traumatization affects the individual's relation to others in several social and psychological ways. The post-traumatic experiences are characterized by helplessness, insecurity, anxiety, loss of basic trust, and fragmentation of perspectives on one's own life. Special considerations should be given to the destruction of the ability to regulate negative emotions (extreme fear, distress, anguish, anger, rage, shame) in relation to others a…
Love and otherness Comments on the paper “Some thoughts on happy and unhappy love”
Phenomena or research data? Qualitative and quantitative strategies in psychoanalysis
The main focus in this paper is method in psychoanalytic research. The author analyses the relation between qualitative and quantitative research and differences and controversies concerning epistemology, method, analysis of data, quality of data, results and validation. He demonstrates what characterises qualitative research and its application and claims that this method is important and relevant for psychoanalytic research in that it can, in a…
Letter from Prague
I was a young student hitchhiking in the eastern part of Europe and arrived in Prague early one morning. Wandering around in the centre of Prague was a ghost‐like experience. Few people in the stre
Towards a better use of psychoanalytic concepts: A model illustrated using the concept of enactment
It is well known that there is a lack of consensus about how to decide between competing and sometimes mutually contradictory theories, and how to integrate divergent concepts and theories. In view of this situation the IPA Project Committee on Conceptual Integration developed a method that allows comparison between different versions of concepts, their underlying theories and basic assumptions. Only when placed in a frame of reference can simila…
Psychoanalysen mit traumatisierten Patienten Trennung, Krankheit, Gewalt
What can we expect from trainee therapists? A study of acquisition of competence in dynamic psychotherapy
This study focuses on training in dynamic psychotherapy. Sessions deriving from the final phase of psychodynamic therapies (N = 21) performed by clinical trainees in an intensive psychodynamic psychotherapy training programme lasting 2 years were analysed for their level of psychotherapeutic competence. Research questions were: (i) To what extent do the trainees reflect strategic thinking in their clinical work? (ii) What characterises therapeuti…
Unconscious phantasy and its conceptualizations: An attempt at conceptual integration
That there is a lack of consensus as to how to decide between competing, at times even contradictory theories, and about how to integrate divergent concepts and theories is well known. In view of this situation, the IPA Committee on Conceptual Integration (2009-2013) developed a method for comparing the different versions of any given concept, together with the underlying theories and fundamental assumptions on which they are based. Only when sit…
Our Relations to Refugees: Between Compassion and Dehumanization
Fundamentalist mindset
Fundamentalism has increasingly become a part of the political discourse in western countries and is to a large degree associated Islamic Jihadism. Fundamentalism has, however, been a concern in all religions, especially in Christianity where the term has its origin more than 100 years ago. Fundamentalism is also a concern in professional organisations and this paper starts with a discussion of the relation between fundaments and fundamentalist t…
Psychology (35 works) · Psychoanalysis (23 works) · Philosophy (16 works) · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications (13 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Psychoanalytic theory (12 works) · Political science (10 works) · Epistemology (9 works) · Migration, Health and Trauma (9 works) · Psychotherapist (9 works)