“Heroic” Asylum Seekers from Around the World: Creating a Future from a Traumatic Past

Abstract

This paper describes a multi‐national group of political asylum seekers, designated as “heroes” because they seem to have chosen to resist, when instead they might simply have moved elsewhere. Inspection reveals that they are also chosen by their families to continue a tradition of resistance, which has existed across generations. Once it is their turn, they endure repeated incidents of torture at the hands of oppressors, until finally they are threatened with death. Then, unlike their predecessors, they change course entirely and flee. This action is accomplished with considerable help from their families. Unlike two other resister groups, who tended to remain in the resistor role until they reached victory or death, “heroic” asylum seekers relinquish the thrill of the fight and take flight, seemingly because of a family mandate to do so, in order to move the family elsewhere. An attempt is made to understand the complex motivation behind these acts from a psychoanalytic perspective. What happens once they arrive here, however, is hard to predict. Brief follow‐up data indicates that successful adjustment is not guaranteed and will depend on a set of strengths similar to those required of all immigrants. These include a solid early attachment history, past adult experiences which have been affirming, and considerable local group support. In addition, access to services for the survivors of torture can be useful, although referral to these is (shockingly) happenstance. Thus, despite the peaceful trend their arrival may represent, many forces must come together if its goal is to be achieved. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Female Genital Mutilation and its Aftermath in a Woman who Wished to “Have a Life:” Submission as a Route to the Preservation of Personal Agency

“…Although, since 2008, FGM has been ruled “beyond a reasonable doubt” a cause of on‐going pain and therefore “well founded” grounds for the granting of asylum in the United States, there are still instances in which asylum is not granted to such people. 4 A psychological evaluation is therefore generally requested, as it is for asylum seekers of all kinds (see, for example, Eisold, ; Pepper, ), to document the applicant's alleged experience of extreme hardship or trauma, by virtue of the symptoms it has caused.…”

“…This continued into adulthood, so that dissociating during sex was almost automatic. One of the effects of the work we did in therapy was that she gradually lost this ability, in spite of her ambivalence about doing so (Eisold, ).…”