Lewis Aptekar – författare

In the Lions Mouth is an ethnographic study of humanitarian assistance. Through intense narratives about displaced persons and his interaction with them, Lewis Apektar makes the case for humanitarian aid as finely honed and specific, rather than based on a priori categories and generalities. Moreover, contrary to usual practice, Apektar contends that mental health assistance is at least as important as food and shelter and essential in Kaliti, a camp for displaced persons near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, if the displaced are ever to break the chains of despondency that hold them down.

"In the Lions Mouth is essential reading for scholars and field workers advancing humanitarian aid and human rights in the developing world. The book also provides cogent insight and information for clinicians who implement community mental health."Dr. David Swanger, Professor Emeritus, University of. California, Santa Cruz"This book reminds us that precursors of counseling and therapy have been in practice for thousands of years around the world and that counseling was not a Euro-American invention of the last few decades. Lewis Aptekar brings us with him as he seeks to reframe counseling and therapy ''outside the envelope''"Dr Paul B. Pedersen, Professor Emeritus, Syracuse University"Lewis Aptekar is one of the few scholars who places respect for the reality experienced by the people he studies above the illusion of the categories used in humanitarian aid. This ethical principle guides him and confronts him with dilemmas that an intelligent inquirer cannot avoid when facing people in difficult situations."Dr. Daniel Stoecklin, Professor, Institut Universitaire Kurt Bosh, IUKB, Childrens Rights Unit, Sion, SwitzerlandCan you imagine yourself living in Kaliti, a displaced person''s camp in Ethiopia because you want to know what it''s like to be such a person in such a place? But it''s not just curiosity that takes you there. You are a skilled, well-practiced observer of human behavior in situ, so you know what to look for, what to record. And you are a first-class writer, easy to read, whose accounts of what he saw and heard are transmitted with enough detail, enough conveying of emotion that the reader is simultaneously moved while being informed, that you feel as if you, too, are there, in this camp in Ethiopia. The author of this compelling account of the strengths and weaknesses of humanitarian aid programs as exemplified by this particular but not atypical instance is Lewis Aptekar. This book is, in my opinion, as good as his earlier two classics, Street Children of Cali (1988) andEmotional Disasters in Global perspective (1994).Dr. Marshall Segall, Professor Emeritus, Syracuse University

This book deals with street children who live in the developing world, and homeless youth who are from the developed world. They are referred to as children in street situations (CSS) to show that the problem is both in the children and in the situation they face. The book examines several aspects of the children and their street situations, including the families of origin and the homes they leave, the children’s social life, and mental health. Other aspects are the problems of published demographics, the construction of public opinion about these children and the, often violent, reactions from authorities. The book then discusses current research on children in street situations, as well as programs and policies. The book ends with recommendations about programs, policies and research.