Surviving or living?A question of containment

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Abstract
This paper explores the establishment of a safe inner representation of a mother as a crucial containing experience that distinguishes surviving and living. A comparison is drawn between a client with a deprived early experience, who is turned into a refugee and is searching for a containing experience, and a refugee who has had a good inner experience and then loses it. The contrast between the two highlights how a refugee may have to shift from living to surviving. Survival is conceptualized in terms of a ‘fugitive state of mind’ which a refugee may come to occupy. Living is thought about as a state in which safety is not only contingent upon an external set of factors but vitally depends on the circumstances which allow for internal containment. In the last part of the paper emphasis is placed on needing to take account of these special needs for containment in addressing management practices and rehabilitation of refugees. It is suggested that doing so establishes the necessary conditions for containment while blindness to these needs impedes further rehabilitation and integration.

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