ABSTRACT
A refugee may well have faced multiple bereavements including loss of country, status, activity, cultural reference points, social networks and family. Making use of a psychoanalytic understanding of the impact of trauma allows a deeper understanding of the refugee's experiences and the impact this may have on the work required within social care. From a psychoanalytic perspective, trauma is thought to pierce the protective shield around the mind so that it is flooded with an excess of external stimulation. Traumatised patients may unconsciously construct a theatre in which the traumatic scenario is endlessly repeated with the different roles of victim, perpetrator, witness and rescuer offered to others who may be drawn in. The diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has been in common usage since the mid 1980s, originally coined in response to the experiences of Vietnam veterans in the United States.
