Acions

Our work can be categorized into three main fields:

Sociotherapy
Education
Research

1. Sociotherapeutic field

This field contains four types of attention:

Psychotherapeutic
Medical
Juridical
Social

Strategic Objective

Specific Objective

To develop a comprehensive system of treatment of the individual and social consequences produced by state-induced torture and violence.

To develop models of diagnosis, prevention, treatment and biopsychosocial and juridical evaluation that meet the demands of its users while guaranteeing them their confidentiality.
To offer aid during emergency situations, mobilizations and/or social problems to persons involved.
To foster actions that improve the treatment of those cases treated by the ITEI.
To take part in professional exchange networks and interinstitutional networks to strengthen the attention given by ITEI.
To raise awareness within the general population about the subject fields on which ITEI works.

So far (decembre 2006) 1024 persons have received services by the ITEI, 656 (64%) of them male, 368 (36%) of them female.

2. Educational field

General objective

Specific Objective

Development of teams that have a thorough training in treating persons traumatized by torture and other forms of state induced violence.

To develop a comprehensive system of psycho-social treatment of the consequences for individual, family and institution produced by torture and state violence.
To develop models of diagnosis and therapeutic intervention adapted to the socio-political and cultural context.
To promote and develop the training of teams working in the community, capable of reflecting on internal dynamics produced by the permanent confrontation with traumatic experiences.

Courses

Psychotherapy with traumatized persons.
Psychotherapy with groups of traumatized persons.
Trauma, memory and trans generational transmission.
Psychoanalysis.
Psychotherapy with children: treatment and forms of rehabilitation.

Courses permit ITEI

To train educators and social workers from affiliated institutions, given the lack of psychotherapeutic training in Bolivia .
To provide opportunity in every course for supervision of clinical cases.
To provide opportunity for training in holding therapy sessions with groups of traumatized persons.
For all courses ITEI has been given advice by experts from the European Federation for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in the Public Sector (EFPP).

3. Research field

Objectives

Identifying the social conflicts for which persons were tortured or subjected to state induced violence.
Give the opportunity to express, manifest or denounce the trauma caused by repression.
To determine the social, psychological and economic impact of the torturing and state induced violence.
To investigate, in a profound manner, the consequences of the torturing and state induced violence.
To denounce torture and state induced violence, as well as its consequences in Bolivia .
To revive Bolivia´s historical conscience.
To offer instruments for a continuing of awareness.
To identify ways of solving psychological, medical and social problems.
To publicize the work of ITEI in this field as an `institutional business card`.

Research results

A training process has been initiated for members of ITEI.
A database of testimonies has been set up. This material will be used in future research.
Three investigations are in process:

In Cochabamba on ´Consequences of State Induced Violence on Children of Tropic Cochabamba´ (graduation thesis).
In La Paz , El Alto and the Highland provinces on ´Consequences of torture and state induced violence in Bolivia´.
On ´Consequences of State Violence during the March of the Pensioners´, involving senior citizens from different provinces, mainly Oruro and Potosí.

What does ´torture´ mean?

According to the ´UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment´ the term “torture” means “ any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.”

What does ´state induced violence´ mean?

Violence is the fundament of the state, of any state, including liberal democracies. To guarantee its continuity and to impose its power, the state produces and administers violence, through the means of institutions that lend legitimacy to it, such as police and army, who administer it efficiently, and according to laws and regulations.