title: The power of the notion of resistance in the mental health field: a case study on the life of rural communities whitin the Colombian armed conflict.
abstract: The objective of this study is to identify individual, family and/or community responses of resistance within protracted armed conflict. We conducted a case study with members of rural communities in the municipality of San Francisco, in the eastern area of Antioquia, Colombia, combining biographical and ethnographical approaches. The primary results show that, along with the suffering generated by the experience of armed conflict, rural community members also display a repertoire of multiple and diverse resistance strategies. Resistance is for them an active response and a way to re-weave the fabric torn by the experience. As a type of affirmative opposition, resistance is a powerful category for the entire mental health field, in that it highlights the creativity and capacity for transformation of individuals. In this way, the category allows for overcoming the limits of the conventional biomedical view that tends to pathologize individual and social responses in scenarios of severe distress.
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Enfermería, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia.
authors.forename: Beatriz Elena
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Arias López
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000068337:Armed Conflicts; D003105:Colombia; D003405:Creativity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D011209:Power, Psychological; D036301:Qualitative Research; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D012423:Rural Health; D000067453:War Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*
keywords: Mental Health; War; Creativity; Rural Population; Colombia