This paper begins with two figures from the clinical study of the extermination and forced self-extermination of the Mayan Indians of Guatamala. This approach, situated between individual treatment and social history, is contrasted with the case of Birahima, a child soldier from Liberia and Sierra Leone, which belongs to the ideological literature and history of the present day.
These are two ways of approaching a process that will swell in rhythm with the tide of impoverishment and de-symbolization now sweeping the planet. International agencies set up juridical safeguards, but the psychological accompaniment of former child and adult soldiers still benefits from little genuine clinical competence.