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Mental Health Work with People Affected by State Terrorism in Uruguay: a Personal Reflection on 25 Years Work Intervention 2013, Volume 11, Number 1, Page 94 - 100

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Mental Health Work with People Affected by State Terrorism in Uruguay: a Personal Reflection on 25 Years Work Intervention 2013, Volume 11, Number 1, Page 94 - 100 Mental health work with people affected by state terrorism in Uruguay: a personal reflection on 25 years work Intervention 2013, Volume 11, Number 1, Page 94 - 100 Mental health work with people affected by state terrorism in Uruguay: a personal reflection on 25 years work Celia Maria Robaina In this personal re£ection, the author describes her palpable in the streets, and military and mental health work and experience with people police vehicles invaded the city.The violence who have su¡ered from the political violence impacted those people and institutions that occurred during the dictatorship in Uruguay, nearest and dearest to me: family, friends, 1973 ^ 1985. She presents a personal account of school and neighbourhood. I remember the socio-political processes and her experience as how abruptly the harmony of my childhood a psychotherapist, from then until today.The author memories changed. At that time, I did not, argues that the psychosocial trauma that has been of course, know that I would later study in£icted by the state cannot be healed by only ‘mental psychology.Today, I realise that the violence health’ work, as the process for reparation and I had seen as a child pushed me to choose this justice in Uruguay has been very slow and painful. profession, trying to overcome the sense of Furthermore, she has observed that the impunity powerlessness it had created, and to help granted perpetrators may re-victimise survivors, reverse the damage. and further damage their mental health. Psycho- Uruguay is a small country in southern logical work with people a¡ected by state terrorism Latin America with around 3 million requires interdisciplinary analysis and, as the inhabitants. In the past, it had had a strong author argues, mental health professionals should democratic tradition and was, at one time, join in the struggles of their patients. In Uruguay, called ‘the Switzerland of America’. All that as elsewhere in Latin America, psychotherapists changed in the late 1960s, when the repres- have formed organisations to assist the survivors, sion began. However, it was not until June and raised their voice within the public discourse. 1973, the start of the dictatorship, that This has contributed to breaking the silence sur- Uruguayans learned what the loss of the rule rounding events, and has helped to come to terms of law actually meant. During the dictatorial with the psychological e¡ects of state organised regime, silence and fear grew as state violence. In her work, the author has learned the terrorism advanced. What happened in importance of exchange of information between Uruguay was similar to other countries in colleagues, including colleagues from other countries. the southern part of the continent; dictator- ships received signi¢cant support from the Keywords: dictatorship, mental health, United States, aiming to destroy popular political violence, state terrorism, Uruguay mobilisation by sowing fear and isolation among citizens, and to impose neoliberal Introduction economic policies. Political violence in Uruguay began when The Uruguayan military specialised in I was a child. A repressive climate was systematic torture (both physical and 94 Copyright © War Trauma Foundation. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited. Celia Maria Robaina psychological) and prolonged detention. di¡erent disciplines (physicians, psycholo- Prisoner numbers, including people who gists, social workers, physical therapist),with were tried by military courts and people the goal of providing comprehensive health held in detention without any form of pro- care to: former political prisoners and their cess, amounted to a ratio of 31 per every families, the families of the disappeared, 10,000 inhabitants (Servicio Paz y Justicia, political exiles and their families, and 1989). Torture was applied systematically to relatives of politicians killed. destroy the militants,‘to teach a lesson’ and to In the1980s, many former political prisoners create a passive society that was numb, and consulted doctors in SERSOC for their therefore, would not rebel. As a result of this physical symptoms. In most cases, they political persecution, about 100,000 people denied having any psychological problems were forced into exile. The organisation, and took pride in this stance. Many said Asociacio¤n de Madres y Familiares de that, although the enemy had tried to break Detenidos Desaparecidos (Mothers and them psychologically, they were psychologi- Relatives of Disappeared Detainees), esti- cally unbroken. It was a general period of mates that about 230 people disappeared euphoria, in which they intended to catch without a trace. Others were killed, or died up and engage in personal and social in prison due to lack of medical care. projects. During the dictatorship, psychologists work- In 1985, the country returned to democracy. ing with victims met their clients in private The new government granted amnesty to o⁄ces, in other words, in isolation. Mental political prisoners and provided support for health professionals were unable to network exiles to return to the country. However, in or consult each other, at least until 1983 1986, parliament passed a law that left those when a strong popular mobilisation started responsible for the military dictatorship against the dictatorship. In 1983, the asso- unpunished. Attempts to overturn this ‘law ciation of psychologists was created, as of impunity’, through a referendum, failed. well as two nongovernmental organisations This has had a signi¢cant impact on all (NGOs) that worked with victims of the victims who felt that by not bringing the oppression: the Comisio¤n por el Reencuen- perpetrators to justice, the entire democra- tro de los Uruguayos (Commission for the tic system was discredited. In response, the Reunion of Uruguayans) and the Centro president said that those who spoke about de Orientacio¤n y Consulta (Counselling the past had ‘eyes in the neck’ (meaning their and Consultation Centre). focus was not on the future) and continued I started working with the Servicio Paz y to pursue a public policy that promoted Justicia (Peace andJustice Services), the ¢rst silence, oblivion, fear and lies. human rights organisation in Uruguay, This created a huge challenge for psy- when I was at college. I workedthere for over chotherapists working with survivors of a decade. This experience largely guided political violence. The psychoanalytic train- my career, urging me to re£ect on the links ing that we had had was not su⁄cient to between psychology and human rights. In understand the issues raised by these clients. 1985, just after I ¢nished my undergraduate We were young and had primarily learnt studies, I joined the NGO Social Rehabilita- by trial and error. tion Service (SERSOC). This organisation Psychoanalysis had taught us that therapy was created in 1984, by professionals from should be directed primarily to the analysis 95 Copyright © War Trauma Foundation. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited. Mental health work with people affected by state terrorism in Uruguay: a personal reflection on 25 years work Intervention 2013, Volume 11, Number 1, Page 94 - 100 of unconscious con£icts, with great emphasis provide comprehensive health care services, on early childhood issues. However, people o¡ered them a safe framework. did not consult us for mental illness, but We had to work not only with the e¡ects of because of disturbances in their lives that state terrorism, but also the e¡ects of impu- had resulted from traumatic experiences. nity. Policies of forgetfulness and impunity These problems did not ¢t in our therapeutic have e¡ectively silenced victims for 20 years, models, which were aimed at the treatment and as a result, these policies have of ‘neurosis’or‘psychosis’. It was insu⁄cient to ‘re-victimised’ them. The lack of social proces- analyse them fromthe perspective of the per- sing of state violence prevented the social son’s individual history, or what happened validation of the damage. Impunity gener- in the family during childhood, while at the ates denial, ignorance and lack of public same time ignoring social, ideological and recognition for the victims. Their stories political factors. Unlike the work with other were not integrated into the history of traumatic experiences, we were confronted families, communities or national history. with clients that had traumatic experiences Clinical work faced serious constraints; that were in£icted by the state, the institu- social trauma could not be healed if pro- tion that was to suppose to be the guarantor cesses of recognition did not accompany it of good life in society. As result, we turned by the societyandthe state. As of today,there to social psychology to understand collective isstillalongwaytogo. and group processes, to analyse the dialecti- The o⁄cial discourse of forgetfulness cal link between socio-political factors and created a general lack of interest in the the intra-psychic. The insights created from psychosocial consequences of violence and the ¢elds of sociology, anthropology and torture. However, a few human rights political philosophy were used, as we needed organisations continued to work on these to understand the psychosocial e¡ects of themes, patiently and persistently. Popular state terrorism, as well as the importance mobilisation and claims of Truth, Justice and of collective identity, and the social impacts Memory1 were revived by the end of the of the crimes committed against the people 1990s. New organisations of a¡ected people that were referred to us. appeared, and new literary, journalistic or The 1990s were di⁄cult years. The media academic works were published. After every did not talk about what had happened public event related to the past occurred, during the dictatorship. The technical team the number of consultations to SERSOC of SERSOC was reduced. International increased. A shared public discourse in agencies abruptly withdrew their ¢nancial Uruguay eventually emerged that admitted support, arguing that the state should take what had happened, which empowered indi- care of the politics of reparation.
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