A group psychoanalytic approach to the analysis of peacemakers' practice

Bibliographic Data

ID21748101
AuthorsHana Salaam Abdel-Malek (0000-0001-5524-9493, British Psychoanalytical Society, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume19
Issue1
Pages83-91
Publication date2022-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1556-9187 • E-ISSN: 1742-3341
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/aps.1731
OpenAlexW3199713850
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited25

Peacemakers dealing with violent conflicts are often exposed to stressors that are detrimental to the peacemaking process. Such stressors hinder performance and challenge the peacemakers' professional identity and identifications, both consciously and unconsciously. Moreover, peacemakers may risk contamination by the “radioactive,” traumatic elements of the violence inherent in the bellicose situations they deal with at the peace table. They may become “crypt carriers” of expulsed mourning and denied lost objects. In this study, I elaborate on whether a group psychoanalytic approach to analyzing peacemakers' practice can offer mediators the space to explore, elaborate on, and symbolize the unconscious dynamics underlying their practice. Having such a space can help them perform the psychic “work of trauma,” and shield or decontaminate them and their practice from the “radioactive” effect of the potentially traumatic elements of their profession. Such an approach can provide peacemakers with a complementary tool for developing their practice

Criminology · Psychic · Psychoanalysis · Psychoanalytic theory · Sociology · Stressor · Unconscious mind · Clinical Psychology · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Medicine · Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Social Psychology

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