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‘Unburden us and them’:Encountering ‘the other’ in meetings between Bosnian genocide survivors and Dutch UN veterans
No full textRecently, the Dutch government granted ‘Dutchbat 3’ veterans and their partners the opportunity to return to Srebrenica and its surroundings, where they had been located up until the genocide of 1995. An important part of these return trips is dedicated to on-site meetings with women survivors of war and genocide. These encounters are thought to encourage more dialogue, mutual understanding, and an engagement with ‘the other’s’ points of view, with the aim of transforming the relationship between the participants. However, the conditions needed to make these encounters equal and meaningful are not yet fully understood. Levelling the playing field in encounters implies an ‘unlearning’ of earlier acquired perspectives, narratives, and worldviews, and involves mutual openness and respect. The success of an encounter is dependent on the willingness of visitors and hosts to think and do differently. This might be challenging in a context in which the memory of past conflict is highly gendered, polarized and politicized. By better grasping whether and in what ways encounters with ‘the other’ might become meaningful, it could be possible to design and implement these encounters accordingly. In this article, we aim to identify the conditions needed to enable or disable such encounters. Based on ethnographic research of survivors and veterans, we ask: which conditions need to be met to make the encounters meaningful for the participants? We argue that their current form has potential, but that, to be successful, more attention is needed to better understand what engaging with ‘the other’ really requires: it means being ready to ‘restory’ the past and be open to different perspectives. Our research shows that this is not easily done: dominant narratives feed into dichotomous memory cultures, causing people to fall back into old patterns, despite the fact that both groups had suffered from very similar forms of institutional neglect. To redress this the conceptualization of the encounters and return trips would need to be carefully considered
‘We willen hier nooit meer weg’:Een onderzoek naar ervaringen met sociale contacten en zingeving in seniorenwooncomplexen te Bennekom, Wageningen en Rotterdam
Get PDFDe Nederlandse overheid stimuleert dat ouderen zo lang mogelijk zelfstandig blijven wonen en de meeste ouderen willen dat zelf ook. Om in de behoefte aan zelfstandige woonruimte te voorzien kent Nederland een groot aantal wooncomplexen die specifiek voor ouderen zijn bedoeld. Deze complexen beschikken vaak over extra voorzieningen, zoals een gemeenschappelijke ruimte waar bewoners elkaar kunnen ontmoeten en deel kunnen nemen aan gezamenlijke activiteiten.Dit onderzoek richt zich op de vraag wat er gebeurt in je leven als je de stap zet van het huis waarin je zo lang woonde, wellicht met je gezin, naar een appartement binnen een seniorencomplex. En als je er eenmaal woont, hoe ga je dan om met de spanning tussen de autonomie waarnaar je verlangt en de verbondenheid waaraan je behoefte hebt
Relationships Matter Most:A Mixed Methods Study into Meaning in Life in Personality Disorder, Before and After Treatment
No full textMeaning in life is often at stake in patients with personality disorder (PD) and associated with a lack of self-direction. Meaning in life, including religion and spirituality, seems to contain facets within personality and facets independent of personality and might change during treatment. The sample included patients with PD (pre-treatment n = 125, post-treatment n = 85) and a control group (n = 69). To clarify (changes in) facets of meaning in life, open interview questions on meaning, meaninglessness, recovery, and supportive resources were subjected to a qualitative and quantitative analysis. The results show that significant others are the primary, most important source of meaning in life and support for PD patients and controls. Negative feelings, feelings of loss, and a psychiatric disorder are the three most frequent “causes” of meaninglessness in patients, stressing the importance of therapy to treat these issues. In the PD group, pets are a relevant source of meaning in life. Treatment is likely to contribute to the restoration of meaning in life. Here, addressing interpersonal functioning represents a key element, probably by improving connectedness with loved ones
Finding Meaning in Psychiatric Recovery:A Literature Review of Approaches to Meaning in Life Within Mental Healthcare
No full textMeaning in life (MiL) is a key facilitator of recovery from severe mental illness (SMI), yet its conceptualization in mental health care remains ambiguous. Through an integrative literature review, this study first identified a range of MiL aspects in mental healthcare for people with SMI. Thirty-one studies were selected and analysed, in which 32 aspects emerged. Secondly, an analysis of the theoretical background of the selected studies yielded four disciplinary perspectives from which MiL was conceptualized. Future MiL studies might benefit from specifying and including common (or less common) MiL aspects, such as purpose, relationships, spirituality, identity, coherence, and well-being.</p
