Reconocimiento social y elaboración del trauma de origen sociopolítico. Una experiencia grupal con mujeres torturadas

Abstract

This work raises the question of the need for social acknowledgement to those who suffered violation of their human rights during the military dictatorship in Chile (1973-1990). We present clinical vignettes of a group therapy process conducted at Latin-American Institute of Mental Health and Human Rights, with women that were victims of sexual torture and that did not share this traumatic experience with anyone for over 30 years. They were treated in group therapy after their testimony before the National Commission of Politics and Torture, which was created by the Chilean government in 2003 as an instance of recognition of the damage suffered by these people. The therapeutic work is performed based on this context and the authors maintain that this stimulates the individual processing of these extremely traumatizing experiences.