Searching for normal in the wake of the Liberian war / Sharon Alane Abramowitz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Abramowitz, Sharon Alane, author.

Series:

Pennsylvania studies in human rights.

Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social psychology--Liberia.

Social psychology.

Postwar reconstruction--Liberia.

Postwar reconstruction.

Mental health--Liberia--International relations.

Mental health.

Psychic trauma--Liberia.

Psychic trauma.

Women--Violence against--Liberia.

Women.

Liberia--Social conditions--1980-.

Liberia.

Liberia--History--Civil War, 1989-1996--Psychological aspects.

Liberia--History--Civil War, 1999-2003--Psychological aspects.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (280 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania : University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

At the end of Liberia's thirteen-year civil war, the devastated population struggled to rebuild their country and come to terms with their experiences of violence. During the first decade of postwar reconstruction, hundreds of humanitarian organizations created programs that were intended to heal trauma, prevent gendered violence, rehabilitate former soldiers, and provide psychosocial care to the transitioning populace. But the implementation of these programs was not always suited to the specific mental health needs of the population or easily reconciled with the broader aims of reconstruction and humanitarian peacekeeping, and psychiatric treatment was sometimes ignored or unevenly integrated into post-conflict humanitarian health care delivery. Searching for Normal in the Wake of the Liberian War explores the human experience of the massive apparatus of trauma-healing and psychosocial interventions during the first five years of postwar reconstruction. Sharon Alane Abramowitz draws on extensive fieldwork among the government officials, humanitarian leaders, and an often-overlooked population of Liberian NGO employees to examine the structure and impact of the mental health care interventions, in particular the ways they were promised to work with peacekeeping and reconstruction, and how the reach and effectiveness of these promises can be measured. From this courageous ethnography emerges a geography of trauma and the ways it shapes the lives of those who give and receive care in postwar Liberia.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Abbreviations

1. Searching for Normal in the Wake of the Liberian War

2. Clusters, Coordination, and Health Sector Transitions

3. Trauma and the New Normal

4. Individual Interventions

5. The GBV Proxy

6. Ex-Combatant Rehabilitation

7. Redemption Time

8. The Healers

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Acknowledgments

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780812209938

0812209931

OCLC:

884035451