Ethnopsychological Meaning of the Symptomatology of War Psychotrauma in Traditional Africa

The thesis statement of this research is the ethnopsychological meaning of the symptomatology of war psychotrauma in traditional Africa. Here, the individual is considered as a person with four principles in. The purpose of the study is to understand the meaning of the signs and symptoms of war psychotrauma in traditional Africa. The research used the clinical method which is based on the natural observation of facts. It refers to the totality of situations, to the singularity of individuals, to the concrete aspect of situations, to their dynamics, to their genesis and to their meaning. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews with five psycho-traumatized war soldiers. The results show that the psychotraumatic symptomatology is the expression of an attack on the fundamental psychic principles. It concerns the violation of the biophysiological principle, which is similar to the avoidance and revival syndromes; impairment of the vital principle which is akin to neurophysiological syndrome; of breaking in of the spiritual principle which is similar to dissociative symptoms. The study allowed the development of the cultural theoretical model of war psychotrauma from the approach of the conflict of relation of Sow.