'No Five Fingers are Alike': What Exiled Kurdish Women in Therapy Told Me

by Nora Ahlberg

Overview

This book, the second in the International Series of Psychosocial Perspectives on Trauma, Displaced People and Political Violence, focuses on refugee women and one of the few that limit their scope only to one group of refugees – the Kurds in Norway.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781855755123
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/31/2007
Series:	The International Series of Psychosocial Perspectives on Trauma, Displaced People & Political Violence
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	358
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Nora Ahlberg has a background as a full professor—alternately of psychology and comparative religion—at three out of four Norwegian universities, in addition to the Oslo University College, and as Associate Professor at the University of Helsinki. She is presently head of the Norwegian Centre for Minority Health Research and Professor of Transcultural Psychology at the Medical Faculty at the University of Oslo. Before taking up this position she was professor and head of both the Psychosocial Centre for Refugees at the University of Oslo and the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Trondheim.

Table of Contents

Series Editor’s Foreword — About the Author — Author’s Foreword to the Present Edition — Introduction — A Cultural Study of Clinical Context — The Interdisciplinary Challenge — Psychological Trauma Reconsidered — The Torture Versus Exile Trauma — Violation of Gender — Violations of Intergenerational Obligations — Clientification as a Re-Actualised Trauma — The Collective Dimensions of Trauma — The Millenarian Heritage of the Modern Age — The Cumulative Effects of Trauma — Therapy in a Cross-Cultural Setting — Patterns of Exchange in Cross-Cultural Trauma Therapy — The Aesthetics of Cross-Cultural Therapeutic Interaction — On The Narrative Approach and Meaning-Formation — Postscript — Symbolic Shelter in a Changing World — On Methodological Choice and the Study of Sensitive Issues — List of Clients’ Narratives Found in the Text

Editorial Reviews

No Five Fingers are Alike is a study of trauma from a wider, interdisciplinary point of view... It documents extensive knowledge of the many-faced sides of trauma therapy, and is obviously very interesting and useful for both academics and professionals in the field. The book is written in a matter-of-fact manner, which balances very well with the almost explosive empirical evidence of human violations described and analysed....It emphasises a need for multicultural awareness and interdisciplinary approaches....

Professor Yngve Lithman

”Ahlberg’s source material consists of narratives by traumatized Kurdish refugees as they have been told to her in a therapeutic situation while using an interpreter. A main point is that these narratives are not merely about the past tragedies of these refugees, but that they just as much represent their attempts at reinterpreting their lives and creating meaning in a new culture. They all share the topic of how refugee narratives of traumatic experiences are used as a source for cultural knowledge. The said narratives emerge as a rich source material for comparative religion. Ahlberg’s approach is characterized by her broad interdisciplinary competence where the history of religion, psychology, sociological and narratological perspectives are utilized in order to reach a holistic perspective.

Professor Einar Thomassen

”Ahlberg’s source material consists of narratives by traumatized Kurdish refugees as they have been told to her in a therapeutic situation while using an interpreter. A main point is that these narratives are not merely about the past tragedies of these refugees, but that they just as much represent their attempts at reinterpreting their lives and creating meaning in a new culture. They all share the topic of how refugee narratives of traumatic experiences are used as a source for cultural knowledge. The said narratives emerge as a rich source material for comparative religion. Ahlberg’s approach is characterized by her broad interdisciplinary competence where the history of religion, psychology, sociological and narratological perspectives are utilized in order to reach a holistic perspective.”

“No Five Fingers are Alike is a study of trauma from a wider, interdisciplinary point of view... It documents extensive knowledge of the many-faced sides of trauma therapy, and is obviously very interesting and useful for both academics and professionals in the field. The book is written in a matter-of-fact manner, which balances very well with the almost explosive empirical evidence of human violations described and analysed....It emphasises a need for multicultural awareness and interdisciplinary approaches....

From the Publisher