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Ulysses Syndrome: What is it?

27 November, 2023

By Belén González de la Parra from DEFOIN

In many cases, the media’s coverage of the consequences of migratory phenomena only covers the physical and visible consequences. However, the psychological consequences of this process and the subsequent “acculturation” to the host society can be very severe for migrants, and can give rise to what Joseba Achotegi, psychiatrist, director of the SAPPIR and professor at the University of Barcelona, defines as the Ulysses Syndrome (Ayuda en Acción, 2018).

Ulysses Syndrome, also called Migrant Syndrome, is named after the famous protagonist of  Home’s Odyssey, a demi-god who leaves his home to face multiple threats. This syndrome is also known as Chronic and Multiple Stress Syndrome, referring to the emotional discomfort experienced by migrants and the extreme circumstances and stressors they have had to face during their journey and also upon arrival in the host country, among which we can include:
loneliness, mourning for the failure of the migration project, the struggle to survive or fear (Rodríguez, Pineda and Muñoz, 2020).

This psychological profile is based on anxious-depressive symptoms, halfway between acute stress and adaptive disorders. It can be considered that the Ulysses Syndrome thus encompasses four symptomatological areas: depressive area, fundamentally originated by the ‘migratory mourning’ suffered by migrants, anxious area, somatoform area and dissociative area. Furthermore, Ulysses Syndrome can be classified as a transgenerational disorder, also
prevalent in second-generation migrants (Rodríguez, Pineda and Muñoz, 2020).

Do you want to know more about Ulysses Syndrome? On the Ulysses Syndrome Institute Migration & Mental Health website you can discover articles, explanatory videos and news related to it: https://ulysses-syndrome-institute.org.uk/

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