Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...

Chapter 1 • Silvia Salvatici
5. The students met Sofije and her family in three sessions during the clinical
fieldwork.
6. In his lessons on Family Psychotherapy held during the training course in
Pristina, Renos Papadopoulos pointed out that the “dominant story” focused
on the “trauma” usually hides a “subjugated story”, that must be brought to
light in order to place the psychological suffering in a wider context.
Addressing the account towards the “subjugated story” is a basic condition
to avoid cases where “people are in a certain sense ‘traumatized’ by the
‘trauma’ ”.
7. According to Jean-Marie Lemaire, the identification of “residual resources”
(the choice of the term serves to remind that “neither suffering nor pathology
can be neglected”) is the basic component of the support given by the psychotherapist
to the families in need; see Lemaire, 2000.
8. The role played by the demonstrations in the construction of the individual
and the collective memory has been analysed in Mertus, 1999.
9. Ardita also affirmed that “Prishtina people weren’t expressing very much solidarity
toward people coming from the regions affected by the war. Just a few
of them received refugees from unsafe places, and mainly refugees were better
welcomed and placed through surroundings rather than in town… and
some of Prishtina inhabitants didn’t want to hear anything about the refugees
coming from war regions, they didn’t shelter and help them… they were
indifferent towards them…”
10. The 39.44 per cent of people who left the rural areas during the war did not
go back to villages after the end of the conflict, but moved to the towns (my
elaboration on data available in International Organization for Migration,
2000: 35). Migration from the countryside to the towns must be understood
within the more complex transition from agrarian communities to industrial
societies which played a basic role in fostering ethnic conflicts throughout the
Balkan area; see Ivekovic, 2000.
11. The contrast between town (as a place with a tradition of coexistence and
multiculturalism) and countryside (as a place where nationalism is more radical)
is typical of all former Yugoslavia. Everywhere, migrations from rural to
urban areas have complicated the situation significantly. See Ivekovic, 1995:
38-40.
12. For a wider analysis on the impact of international organizations see Pandolfi,
2000.
13. A close friend of hers, also present during the interview.
14. On the role played by culture in the construction of the “ethnic identity” see
Jenkins, 1997, Govers and Vermeulen, 1997.
15. See Nicola Mai’s contribution to this volume.
16. On the role attributed to women by the community in maintaining the constructed
“cultural boundaries” see Yuval-Davis, 1997: 39-66.
17. On the experience of Albanian-Kosovar women refugees within the reception
structures offered by the international organization see Mertus, 2000.
18. There are 93 women aged 0-19 for every 100 men, for women aged 50-59
there are 99. See International Organization for Migration, 2000: 25.
19. Hasime’s testimony gives us an example of the phenomenon – largely widespread
in the Balkans – of contesting the identities of other communities; see
Duijzings, 2000: 15.
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