Mental health and exile: the therapeutical relation and the moral work of the medical intervention addressed to the victims of organized violence

Abstract

This article approaches the issue of mental health in exile, based on the discursive analysis of the socio-biographical interviews to one of the beneficiaries of the mental health center specialized in the sequels of violence, EXIL-Barcelona and of the focus interviews to its staff. First, it examines the profane etiological narratives and the constituent elements of the healthcare path followed up to a violence-specialized mental healthcare center in Spain. It goes on to analyze the center’s therapeutics. The article explores the processes of subjectivation of organized violence, whose harmful sequels EXIL-Barcelona seeks to relieve by means of a therapeutic that promotes a model of citizenship. The conclusions emphasize the moral work underlying ars medicus.