Mental health and deprivation of liberty: experience report as a psychiatrist in a refugee detention center

Abstract

The experience report refers to the author's work for six months as a psychiatrist by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in a Refugee Detention Center in Nauru, an island country in Oceania. The report provides descriptions of the field work and theoretical reflections. The author discusses the issue of suicide and the specificity of this issue for the group of refugees and asylum seekers seen in Nauru, as well as the discovery of a new clinical diagnosis called the resignation syndrome. The author also seeks to reflect on the role of mental health professionals when facing deprivation of liberty.