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Wounded and a Little Bit Monitored: An Ethnographic Study of Psychological Help in the Belarussian Refugee Community in Lithuania

Sanko, Yana LU (2024) SANM05 20241
Social Anthropology
Abstract
This is an ethnographic study of psychological help for the refugees within the Belarusian refugee community in Lithuania. The paper approaches this phenomenon with attention to various cultural, political, and social factors that influenced how psychological discourse was mobilized and how the notion of psychological care was experienced, practiced, and resisted.

The main argument of this study is that the psychological discourse as the core of psychological help should be seen as a cultural resource that can be interpreted through the idea of emotional capital. Further, I show that people use this resource in various flexible and hybrid ways. It can provide relief and facilitate endurance work needed to repair lives in exile and... (More)
This is an ethnographic study of psychological help for the refugees within the Belarusian refugee community in Lithuania. The paper approaches this phenomenon with attention to various cultural, political, and social factors that influenced how psychological discourse was mobilized and how the notion of psychological care was experienced, practiced, and resisted.

The main argument of this study is that the psychological discourse as the core of psychological help should be seen as a cultural resource that can be interpreted through the idea of emotional capital. Further, I show that people use this resource in various flexible and hybrid ways. It can provide relief and facilitate endurance work needed to repair lives in exile and resist downward mobility, as well as be the technology of power, control, and coercion. I discuss instances where the use of psychological expertise and vocabularies does not align with the claim that psychologization always leads to depoliticization. It shows how psychological help is often seen as part of various political projects despite its claims of neutrality and universality. Therefore, psychological help and psychologization of the refugee experience should be understood as a complex phenomenon that has both coercive and emancipatory potential. (Less)
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author
Sanko, Yana LU
supervisor
organization
course
SANM05 20241
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Belarus, Refugees, Emotional capital, Endurance, Parrhesia, Psychologization, Depoliticization, Social Anthropology
language
English
id
9172971
date added to LUP
2024-08-29 17:34:50
date last changed
2024-08-29 17:34:50
@misc{9172971,
  abstract     = {{This is an ethnographic study of psychological help for the refugees within the Belarusian refugee community in Lithuania. The paper approaches this phenomenon with attention to various cultural, political, and social factors that influenced how psychological discourse was mobilized and how the notion of psychological care was experienced, practiced, and resisted. 

The main argument of this study is that the psychological discourse as the core of psychological help should be seen as a cultural resource that can be interpreted through the idea of emotional capital. Further, I show that people use this resource in various flexible and hybrid ways. It can provide relief and facilitate endurance work needed to repair lives in exile and resist downward mobility, as well as be the technology of power, control, and coercion. I discuss instances where the use of psychological expertise and vocabularies does not align with the claim that psychologization always leads to depoliticization. It shows how psychological help is often seen as part of various political projects despite its claims of neutrality and universality. Therefore, psychological help and psychologization of the refugee experience should be understood as a complex phenomenon that has both coercive and emancipatory potential.}},
  author       = {{Sanko, Yana}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Wounded and a Little Bit Monitored: An Ethnographic Study of Psychological Help in the Belarussian Refugee Community in Lithuania}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}