Issue 3/4 Vol. 34 1992

Traumatization of group leaders in their work with refugees

DIMINIC, I., FRANCISKOVIC, T., DELIC, B., SERDAREVIC, I.

Refugees are a special, threatened group of people, participants of this war, who were all of a sudden forced to abandon their homes. Majority of them were suddenly, "overnight", left without everything they had, without a part of their lives, some even without their closest family. They all have one thing in common: they all are losers. Work with such people is directed toward overcoming of their feeling of loss and being abandoned as well as toward prevention of possible psychical decompensation. Since August 1991 we have been working with groups of refugees, temporarily sheltered in the region of Rijeka. Groups of refugees are markedly regressive people with increased sensitivity, low degree of tolerance, great demands on the society and strongly expressed projectivity. Leaders suffer their personal traumatizations in their work with groups of refugees. The aim of this work is to present the reactions and feelings of leaders caused by manifestations of group dynamics in different phases of exile.

Keywords: displaced persons, refugees, exile, traumatic experiences, war, group dynamics

Short Title: Diminic, I. et al. (1992) PsyBeit 3-4:184

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