Psychosocial Rehabilitation

„Colonia Dignidad“, a totalitarian sect, was founded in 1961 by the lay preacher Paul Schäfer in the south of Chile with an initial group of 200 members. In the following decades the settlement changed into a closed camp within the state. The leader of sect had absolute authority and could pursue his pedophile tendencies, uncontrolled and with impunity. Simultaneously, the colony served as a torture camp for the Chilean secret service, DINA. On the basis of pseudo-religious „holy teaching“ Schäfer and his leadership circle built a system of control, punishment, and mutual denunciation. Children were separated from their parents; friendly, family or sexual relations among the members were forbidden. Unpaid work, severe punishments, and the use of psychiatric drugs and electric shock treatment ruled the lives of the residents.
In 2005 Schäfer was arrested in Argentina and sentenced a year later to 20 years imprisonment. In the same year the German foreign ministry set up a psycho-therapeutic program for the residents of „Villa Baveria“, as the former „Colonia Dignidad“ is called today. The psycho-therapeutic team consisted of a psychiatrist and two psychologists. Treatment was seen as a necessary rehabilitative addition to the criminal justice proceedings dealing with the serious human rights abuses committed in the camp. It was intended to help the victims deal with the traumatization and assist the community to integrate into society. Initially, individual therapies were difficult due to the clients’ underdeveloped personality structures. In group therapy fear dominated, often clearly resulting from the former repressive nature of the community. For this reason, group therapy was structured on psycho-educative basis with a series of informational events about the family and life cycle. The participants were then better able to talk about their traumatic experiences. The team then decided to view the community as a „collective patient“. This approach was combined with a state care program. Now individual and group therapy, thematically oriented working groups, crisis intervention, communication training, and geronto-psychiatric services are provided. The resources of the clients should be noted, such as their awareness of responsibilities, solidarity, and preservation of culture and music. The typical overall picture of psychological complaints manifested as a personality disorder in the sense of underdeveloped structures of the self, since the processes of personal maturing and individuation, including psycho-sexual development, were inhibited due to the repressive nature of the community. The difficulty of building up a stable and trusting relationship is reflected in counter-transference. The repression in „Colonia Dignidad“ is described from a psychoanalytical perspective as a perverted system which robbed the people living in it of every form of normative human orientation in an upside world.

Suggested Citation: Biedermann, N., Strasser, J., & Poluda, J. (2006). “Colonia Dignidad” – Psychotherapie im ehemaligen Folterlager einer deutschen Sekte [Colonia Dignidad: Psychotherapy in the former torture center of a German sect]. Zeitschrift für Politische Psychologie, 14(1+2), 111–127.

Die „Colonia Dignidad“, eine totalitäre Sektengemeinschaft, wurde 1961 im Süden Chiles von dem Laienprediger Paul Schäfer gegründet, mit anfangs etwa 200 Mitgliedern. In den kommenden Jahrzehnten verwandelte sich die Siedlung in ein geschlossenes Lager – ein Staat im Staate. Der Sektenführer hatte darin unumschränkte Herrschaft und konnte ungehindert und straflos seinen pädophilen Neigungen nachgehen. Zugleich diente die Kolonie dem chilenischen Geheimdienst DINA als Folterlager. Auf der Grundlage einer pseudoreligiösen „Heilslehre“ baute Schäfer und sein Führungskreis ein System der Überwachung, Bestrafung und gegenseitigen Denunziation auf. Kinder wurden von ihren Eltern getrennt, freundschaftliche, familiäre odersexuelle Beziehungen der Sektenmitglieder untereinander waren verboten. Unentlohnter Arbeitsdienst, harte Strafen sowie der Einsatz von Psychopharmaka und Elektrokrampfbehandlung bestimmten das Leben der Bewohner.
2005 wurde Schäferin Argentinien gefasst und ein Jahr später zu einer 20-jährigen Haftstrafe verurteilt. Im selben Jahr initiierte das deutsche Auswärtige Amt ein psychotherapeutischesmBetreuungsprogramm für die Bewohner der „Villa Baviera“, wie die ehemalige „Colonia Dignidad“ heute genannt wird.
Das psychotherapeutische Team bestand aus einem Psychiater und zwei Psychologinnen. Die Behandlung wurd eals notwendige rehabilitative Ergänzung zur strafrechtlichen Aufarbeitung der in der Siedlung begangenen schweren Menschenrechtsverletzungen betrachtet, um erlittene Traumatisierungen bearbeiten und die Siedlungsgemeinschaft in die Gesellschaft integrieren zu können. Die Einzeltherapien gestalteten sich anfangs aufgrund unterentwickelter Selbststrukturen bei den Klienten und Klientinnen als nicht einfach. Auch in der Gruppentherapie traten starke Angstgefühle auf, die offenbar von den früheren repressiven Gemeinschaftstreffen herrührten. Daher wurde die Therapiegruppe mit einer Informationsreihe über Familie und Lebenszyklus psychoedukativer und strukturierter gestaltet. So konnten die Teilnehmenden auch besser über ihre traumatischen Erfahrungen sprechen. Dann ging das Team dazu über, die Gemeinschaft gleichsam als „Gesamtpatienten“ zu betrachten und dies in den Rahmen eines staatlichen Betreuungsprogramms stellen zu lassen. Nun werden Einzel- und Gruppentherapien, thematisch orientierte Arbeitsgruppen, Kriseninterventionen, Kommunikationstrainings und gerontopsychiatrische Angebote durchgeführt. Auf Ressourcen der Klienten und Klientinnen, wie hohes Verantwortungsbewusstsein, Solidarität, Pflege von Kultur und Musik, wird hingewiesen. Das typisierte Gesamtbild psychischer Beschwerden erscheint als Persönlichkeitsstörung im Sinne eines Mangels an selbststrukturierenden Fähigkeiten, da Prozesse der persönlichen Reifung und Individuation, einschließlich der psychosexuellen Entwicklung, durch den repressiven Druck in der Gemeinschaft stark behindert wurden. In der Gegenübertragung spiegelt sich die Schwierigkeit, stabile und vertrauensvolle Beziehungen aufzubauen. Die Repression in der „Colonia Dignidad wird aus psychoanalytischer Sicht als pervertiertes System beschrieben, welches im Sinne einer Umkehrung der Werte die in ihm lebenden Menschen jeglicher normativer Orientierung beraubte.

This paper investigates how two ideologies of mental health rehabilitation-recovery ideology and communal approach-are realized in interactional practices associated with psychosocial rehabilitation. More spesifically, the paper discusses employee selection in the context of the Clubhouse-created Transitional Employment (TE) programme, which offers employment opportunities for rehabili-tants. The paper describes how joint decisions are established during the moment-by-moment interac-tional processes at the Clubhouse. Drawing from the data set of 29 video-recorded rehabilitation group meetings, and Conversation Analysis as a method, the paper analyzes two questions: (1) How do the participants talk about the decision-making process associated with the TE on a ''meta'' level? And (2) how are the TE employees actually selected in the turn-by-turn sequential unfolding of interaction? When discussing the TE employee selection procedure on a ''meta'' level, the values of recovery ideology focusing on client empowerment and self-determination are prevalent. Also, the central ideals of the communal approach-openness and collaboration are defended as decision-making guidelines. However, in the meetings where decisions on the TE employees are concretely made, there is a mismatch between the two ideological approaches to rehabilitation and the actual practices observable in the relevant interactional encounters.

En considérant le travail tant comme métaphore de l’activité thérapeutique que comme activité professionnelle, les auteurs proposent de mettre en lumière les pannes et impasses du processus thérapeutique. Le point d’embrayage est une métaphore des moments où peut émerger une relance de la thérapie. Cette relance favorise le processus d’inscription psychique, et la réunification des champs écartés du fonctionnement global. Le sujet vit cette expérience comme un puissant éprouvé d’unité agissante.
Mots clés : travail – transformation psychique – relance – impasses thérapeutiques – insertion professionnelle.

Getting Back to Work

By considering work equally as a metaphor for therapeutic activity and a professional activity, the authors of this paper wish to shed light on dead ends and breakdowns in the therapeutic process. Their starting point is a metaphor for those moments when therapy may be relaunched. Relaunching fosters mental inscription processes and reunifies fields which have been hitherto cut off from global functioning. The subject experiences such moments as a powerful feeling of active unity.
Keywords: work, mental transformation, relaunch, therapeutic dead ends, profesional integration

This study aimed to test the feasibility of using a mobile device (Apple technology: iPodTouchw, iPhonew or iPadw) among people with severe mental illness (SMI) in a rehabilitation and recovery process and to document the parameters to be taken into account and the issues involved in implementing this technology in living environments and mental health care settings. A qualitative multiple case study design and multiple data sources were used to understand each case in depth. A clinical and comprehensive analysis of 11 cases was conducted with exploratory and descriptive aims (and the beginnings of explanation building). The multiple-case analysis brought out four typical profiles to illustrate the extent of integration of a personal digital assistant (PDA) as a tool to support mental health rehabilitation and recovery. Each profile highlights four categories of variables identified as determining factors in this process: (1) state of health and related difficulties (cognitive or functional); (2) relationship between comfort level with technology, motivation and personal effort deployed; (3) relationship between support required and supportreceived; and (4) the living environment and follow-up context. This study allowed us to consider the contexts and conditions to be put in place for the successful integration of mobile technology in a mental health rehabilitation and recovery process.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the point of view of architecture of an
interdisciplinary research on housing and social integration of people with severe mental disorder
(SMD) in Brazil after deinstitutionalization. It first aims to present the need for a qualitative evaluation
of the way people with SMD deal with their living spaces (house and city); then to describe the method
adopted to approach people living under control – in therapeutic residential services (SRTs) proposed
by the State as the only alternative model for those leaving psychiatric institutions – and people living
alone – with little psychiatric assistance and no dwelling support provided by the State. It aims to
conclude with a discussion of the observed dwellings pointing towards the need to accommodate
differences in any housing model adopted by the State.
Design/methodology/approach – The qualitative evaluation enabled the focus of participant
observation on the way people interact with each other and with their living space. The authors
followed the routines of chosen people with SMD in three different cities in Brazil and provided reports
for the whole group to analyze them.
Findings – It was found that those living in SRTs are much more obstructed by institutional control
than those living alone. Despite the difficulties and fragilities of those living alone because of the lack
of support, they end with more possibilities for autonomy and social integration.
Originality/value – Most research on the subject approaches objective housing issues focusing on
statistical results. This research evaluates qualitative dwelling issues, summarizing little pointers for
future health policy on housing for people with SMD.
Keywords Brazil, Social policy, Mental health services, Community care, Institutional care,
Psychiatric deinstitutionalization, Social integration, Housing, Halfway house, Supported housing