The author approaches the principle difficulty of adolescents in a refugee camp: their inability to project themselves into the future.
“ When we began to work with adolescents who have been through war, we observed that their “ past ” was limited to the period when they experienced the war. We also noted that their imaginings about the war were either absent or traumatizing. ”
Several clinical observations support this assessment and allow for three conclusions :
– one must not proceed too quickly with adolescents in modifying their image of the future
– one must not create images for them
– one must not fear their terrible images