Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...
Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...
Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...
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• Organizing hidden campaigns of terror (kidnapping, assaults) in order to<br />
destabilize the country.<br />
Despite this, even though the discursive field in Kosovo was crowded and<br />
saturated with homogeneous narratives of victimization and conspiracy,<br />
the possibility of a heterogeneous reading of events seemed to appear for<br />
those who had experienced direct libidinal investment onto an (ethnic)<br />
other. By engaging directly with the other, the subject experienced reality<br />
in heterogeneous, pluralistic and ambiguous terms, thus bypassing the<br />
hyper-moralized projections of his/her narcissist and collectivist ego. In<br />
the presence of direct intense libidinal relations, responsibilities tended<br />
either to be projected outwards beyond both Serbs and Albanians onto<br />
foreign powers, or to be assigned within both the homogeneous ethnicities:<br />
to the power in Belgrade (more rarely), to some Albanian terrorists, to<br />
Albanians from Albania, to Serbian paramilitary formations, and/or to<br />
Serbian (from Serbia) volunteers.<br />
Conclusion<br />
<strong>Psychosocial</strong> <strong>Notebook</strong>, Volume 2, October 2001<br />
In Kosovo, as in the FRY, the experience of ethnic antagonism, war, displacement<br />
and resettlement has engendered a process of subjective transformation<br />
and fostered the emergence of new social needs. In the presence<br />
of these needs, already existing homogenous cultural resources become<br />
strategic and are consistently brought into play. From a comparative analysis<br />
of the stories and accounts of both Albanian and Serbian people from<br />
Kosovo gathered in Albania, Kosovo and the remaining FRY in the last<br />
two years, I consider it extremely important to highlight the social and<br />
political implications of the dynamics of self-victimization and retraditionalization<br />
that are shaping the re-construction of an (ontologically)<br />
secure (space) in Kosovo. This is potentially happening according to the<br />
very same cognitive and libidinal frameworks that produced the present<br />
situation.<br />
With this contribution, I wish to question the possibility of actually constructing<br />
a future of security given the continuity and radicalization of<br />
these (culturally hegemonic) homogeneous values and of practices that<br />
foster ethnic hatred, denying the very potentiality of pluralism and (cultural<br />
and social) heterogeneity. In particular, I am very interested in the<br />
political and social implications of The Archives of Memory project, and<br />
of related clinical and psychotherapeutic work in general. As we are working<br />
at an intersection of anthropology, history and psychology, perhaps we<br />
should keep in mind a vital question: how far should we reinstate people<br />
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