Migration, Trauma, Grief and Dissociation

Aslı Dila AKİŞa

aHaliç university Faculty of arts and sciences, department of psychology, İstanbul, türkiye

Akiş AD. Migration, trauma, grief and dissociation. In: Öztürk E, ed. Migration Psychology. 1st ed. Ankara: Türkiye Klinikleri; 2024. p.73- 81.

ABSTRACT

Migration represents a transformative global phenomenon that deeply affects the mental health of individuals through trauma, grief, and dissociation. As individuals and communities transition across borders, they encounter numerous stressors that can lead to significant psychological distress. The transition brings about numerous challenges -loss of cultural identity, separation from family, and the daunting task of assimilating into new societies- each ontributing to the psychological strain experienced by migrants. From a psychotraumatological and dissoanalytic perspective, dissociation emerges as a defensive response to trauma encountered during migration, serving as a survival strategy that can lead to a spectrum of outcomes from personal development to psychological immobility based on the individual’s approach to processing these traumatic experiences. Migration trauma includes a spectrum of acute to chronic stressors leading to psychopathologies such as post traumatic stress disorder and disssociative disorders, often exacerbated by the challenges of cultural assimilation and loss of identity. Grief plays a significant role as migrants face not only personal losses but also the diminishing of their cultural identities and homelands, all while adapting to new social and cultural surroundings.This study advocates for interventions that integrate a psychotraumatological perspective to promote psychological resilience and facilitate social integration, aiming to enable mental health professionals, policymakers, and practitioners to better support the mental health and integration of migrants, ultimately enhancing societal cohesion and the well-being of this vulnerable population.

Keywords: Migration; trauma; grief; grief trauma; dissociation; psychotrumatology

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