Resilience in Haiti: is it culturally pathological?

Dérivois, Daniel; Cénat, Jude Mary; Karray, Amira; Guillier-Pasut, Nathalie; Cadichon, Jeff Matherson; Lignier, Baptiste; Joseph, Nephtalie Eva; Brolles, Lisbeth; Mouchenik, Yoram

doi:10.1192/bji.2017.25

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Our findings align with Ungar (2013) and his argument that “resilience can look like pathological adaptation” (p. 262) if researchers do not engage in understanding young people's clever navigations of threatening social environments. By contrast, our study challenges the suggestion of Haitian resilience as social pathology ( Derivois et al, 2018 ) and nuances previous research on resilience among young people in Haiti, which has mainly been conducted among street-based children ( Cénat et al, 2018 ; Derivois et al, 2020 ; Karray et al, 2016 ). These authors appreciate the complex historical, spiritual, and collective sources of coping and thriving.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 90%

“…Regarding Haitians, Rahill et al (2016) similarly called for future research on resilience to pay attention to local Haitian expressions, and their rich culture of proverbs. Derivois et al (2018) highlight a paradox among street children, where "the most vulnerable populations [scoring highest on PTSD and depression symptoms] in Haiti have the highest resilience scores" (p. 79). Consequently, they ask whether Haitian resilience might indicate social or cultural pathology.…”

Section: Idioms Of Resiliencementioning

confidence: 99%

“… Derivois et al (2018) highlight a paradox among street children, where “the most vulnerable populations [scoring highest on PTSD and depression symptoms] in Haiti have the highest resilience scores” (p. 79). Consequently, they ask whether Haitian resilience might indicate social or cultural pathology.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

“I base my life on sadness”: Apparently paradoxical sources of resilience among young Haitians

Andreassen,

Kirkengen,

Johansen

2023

Transcult Psychiatry

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Haitian expressions of resilience also hold deep knowledge of human vulnerability. This longitudinal, qualitative study with young Haitians from urban shantytowns combines ethnographic and participatory methods to explore the complexities behind such idioms. Artistic and creative products made by or with the youth facilitated interviews, focus group discussions, and workshops. Through the life stories of participants and rich ethnographic material, this study presents locally situated idioms of resilience (and distress). By including local social ecology, the idioms were framed as historically and culturally rooted, thus shaping contextual, pragmatic, and gendered coping strategies grounded in embodied experiences of vulnerability and resistance. The study adds essential insights into Haitian resilience, revealing the local logics behind seemingly paradoxical statements. By drafting a conceptual framework for further studies on idioms of resilience, the study also makes a theoretical contribution to international resilience research.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 90%

Section: Idioms Of Resiliencementioning

confidence: 99%

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“I base my life on sadness”: Apparently paradoxical sources of resilience among young Haitians

Andreassen,

Kirkengen,

Johansen

2023

Transcult Psychiatry

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“…But what we really see expressed on their faces is what many Haitians aptly call kriz – that is, ‘an emotional reaction to trauma’ marked by dissociation, loss of consciousness, convulsions, dizziness, and extreme weakness (Beckett, 2013: 41). Derivois et al (2018: 79) posit that the ‘resiliency’ of Haitian natural disaster victims does not ‘imply the absence of trauma’. They suggest that what appears to be Haitian exceptional resilience may actually be ‘pathological resilience’ – that is, ‘a form of resilience that sublimates setbacks and makes it possible to ‘roll with the punches’ without the ability to bounce back in the long term.’ Although the earthquake victims were able to rely on familial, social, and spiritual networks to navigate the earthquake’s aftermath, many survivors naturally experienced long-term post-traumatic stress, depression, and anxiety.…”

Section: Living or Deadmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Haitian zombie motif: against the banality of antiblack violence

Dubuisson

2022

Journal of Visual Culture

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The circulation and consumption of the images of suffering and lifeless black bodies is a longstanding feature of US visual media. Since each archive of suffering and dead black bodies operates within specific histories, discourses, and affective relationships, this article examines a particular collection of images: the Time magazine photos of the 2010 Haiti earthquake victims. The article argues that the photos evoke the uncanny by using the Haitian zombie motif – an image of ‘monstrous’ black racial difference. The article traces the photos’ elicitation of the uncanny in two ways: one, it highlights how the images produce self/other slippages and thus affirm the uncanny; and two, it examines the insidious and violent ways these slippages dehumanize, dismember, and dispossess those depicted to produce a ‘negative familiarity’ for the non-black observer, thus lending to the banality of antiblack violence. The article ends with a call for ‘radical empathy’ to combat this violence.

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“…The studies of Cénat and Derivois (2014) on polytrauma and the resilience of Haitian street children showed that these child victims of polytrauma demonstrate self-efficacy in coping with their traumatic experiences and less than 15% of them they achieved scores reaching clinical rates of post-traumatic stress disorder. Although various studies (Karray, Joseph et al, 2016;Derivois and Cénat et al, 2018) show that children have a level of resilience ranging from moderate to very high despite their precarious living conditions. Poverty, as Joseph and Derivois (2015) demonstrated to us, is an aggravating factor in violence because it is both more present and more serious in poor families.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

"Ptsd, Social Support and Resilience Among Children in Child Protection in Haiti"

2023

Psychological Applications and Trends 2023

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This study aims to assess the trauma, social support and resilience of children entrusted to child protection in Haiti using quantitative measurement scales. Most of these children had a domestic life course before being entrusted to a child protection institution. They have been and still are victims of intentional and unintentional violence and trauma. Our study sample is 100 entrusted children aged 6 to 17 years old and from three child protection centers in Haiti. According to the results, 37% suffer from depression with a higher percentage in girls, 53% show clinical signs of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder with a higher percentage in boys, 52% show peritraumatic distress scores. On the other hand, these children mostly show fewer clinical signs of anxiety. The Pearson correlations show that traumatic symptoms are much more present in primary school children, most of whom are former child domestics (restavèk). The experience of domesticity leaves deep traumatic traces in the child separated from his parents and forced for some to lead an inhuman life. However, despite mental suffering and a deleterious living environment 64, 3% of these children have a resilient profile. Social support is one of the factors that best predicts the resilience of these children. Indeed, these children separated from their families rely on what their immediate environment can offer them constructively while seeking stable support. This study makes it possible to draw up the psychological profile of children entrusted to child protection in Haiti, while providing details on the risk, vulnerability and protection factors on which we can rely in their care. Finally, it emphasizes the need to offer therapeutic placements to children in order to prevent the traumatic effects of their experience and of domesticity in the long term.

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Resilience in Haiti: is it culturally pathological?

Cited by 7 publications

References 8 publications

“I base my life on sadness”: Apparently paradoxical sources of resilience among young Haitians

“I base my life on sadness”: Apparently paradoxical sources of resilience among young Haitians

The Haitian zombie motif: against the banality of antiblack violence

"Ptsd, Social Support and Resilience Among Children in Child Protection in Haiti"

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