War: Mentalization and Totalitarian State of Mind

For most residents of Europe, war is a new experience in which they find themselves both as witnesses and participants. In this paper the war in Ukraine serves as an illustration and case example. Like any unfamiliar experience, war elicits profound emotional responses which can be so overwhelming that an individual may be unable to fully process them and to create mental representations of the reality of war. When the psyche becomes entrapped in an unprocessed state, without the capacity to derive meaning from it, this results in the "fossilization" of the psyche akin to what McGinley and Segal describes as a totalitarian state of mind. Subjectivity and individual differences come under collective or personal attack, or both. This state of being prioritizes the needs of the collective psyche over the individual psyche. The image of Gorgon Medusa, who transformed living people into "fossilized" ones, is presented as a metaphor of total identification with the collective dimension. In contrast, the psyche can reveal a creative approach to resolving war-induced trauma. This is depicted in the concept of the Alchemical Stone and its creation, which symbolizes a harmonious connection between the external and internal realms, the subjective and objective experiences, and the real and the imaginal dimension.

[Psychological care for combatants psychotraumatized by armed conflict]

The treatment of psychotrauma is based on two main aspects, pharmacological and psychotherapeutic, in accordance with national and international recommendations on psychotherapy, which recommend the use of different techniques, depending on the time frame of the psychotraumatic event or events. The principles of psychological support are based on three phases: immediate, post-medical and long-term. Therapeutic patient education brings added value to the psychological care of psychotraumatized people.

[Risks and Opportunities of Reproducing with HIV]

The war in Ukraine is a major and long-lasting polytraumatic event which has deleterious psychological consequences on a very large number of people in the country (combatants, civilians of all ages), or outside the country. These psychological disorders can have a lasting effect on the lives of children, adolescents and adults who are direct or indirect victims.

[Study on parent-to-child transmission related to Sri Lanka's civil war]

The dynamics of transmission between Tamil parents who fled the civil war in Sri Lanka and their children born in France were studied. The possible trauma that results from the transmission can affect the following generations in a more or less conscious way. The qualitative methodology was based on T-MADE, a method of transcultural analysis of the children's drawings, linked to the analysis of the parents' narrative.

[Drawing with children in situations of war]

In situations of conflict, children are subjected to or witness acts of violence and traumatic events. In the care systems put in place in this context, drawing is an effective means of enabling children to express their emotions and favours a process of restoration.

The Development of Forensic Pathology in London, England: Keith Simpson and the Dobkin Case, 1942

During the Second World War in London, the bombing raids targeting civilians led to a greater public reliance on forensic pathologists. Hospitals used their skills to identify the victims of raids and determine their cause of death, though many bomb victims were never identified. The public reputation of forensic pathology was enhanced by Dr. Keith Simpson's 1942 identification of a body found in a bombed church as the missing Mrs. Dobkin, murdered by her husband and hidden in the rubble. The devastation wrought by the Blitz was countered by this public display of the collaboration between forensic pathology and wartime authorities desperate to maintain order.