THE SAFE COCOON OF CATATONIA

By Meagan Johnson Teresa Nam

Nine-year-old Sophie fled the USSR with her family about six years ago. After her parents were raped, kidnapped, and subsequently beaten by a Russian mafia, Sophie's parents decided to seek asylum in Sweden. Months after making the 3,000-mile move to Sweden, their dream of safety and freedom was quickly bulldozed-the Swedish Migration Board failed to see why Sophie and her family deserved to remain in the country. Immediately after receiving the devastating news, Sophie succumbed to a mysterious illness: a comatose-like state without any apparent biological or medical reason. This illness would soon be diagnosed as Uppgivenhetssyndrom, or resignation syndrome. Lying prone, being fed through a tube, and wholly detached from their adolescent worlds seems like a rare phenomenon for a child as young as nine. However, Sophie's story is just one of a few hundred. Uppgivenhetssyndrom—unlike cancer or ischemic heart conditions---fails to transverse borders as every case lies in Sweden.

First identified in the late 1990s, researchers coined "Uppgivenhetssydrom" as a long-standing disorder plaguing psychologically traumatized migrant children amid a lengthy migration process. Symptoms included gradual withdrawal from the world around them: a profoundly depressive state. This stupor soon prompts paralysis, a lack of speech, and a failure to respond to any stimuli. After months or even years of being in a coma, remission is marked by a return to normal functioning. The child, without any signs of brain damage, wakes up as if they took a nap. Although symptoms resembling Uppgivenhetssydrom can be found in the medical literature (a similar phenomenon was observed in Nazi concentration camps), no hypoth-

esis has been provided to account for its geographical magnitude. This could suggest that Uppgivenhetssydrom is culture-bound; that cultural expectations and beliefs influence symptom expression. "I think it is a form of protection, this coma they are in," says Dr. Elisabeth Hultcrantz, a physician with the Doctors of the World Sweden. Over the years, Dr. Hulcrantz has treated more than forty children with diagnosed Uppgivenhetssyndrom; often, providing pro bono consultations and treatments for families all across Sweden. Being one of the few physicians eager and willing to treat this mysterious illness, Hultcrantz defines Uppgivenhetssydrom as a condition "where the body and soul dissociate." Despite the patient recovering within months or years, there is no apparent biomedical cure. However, one proven remedy exists--the restored hope in their family's safety and well-being. The reasons for this illness are often chalked up to be malingering syndrome or Munchausen by proxy--both discriminately blaming the parents for their child's illness. But as Dr. Hultcrantz expounds, "When I explain to the parents what has happened, I tell them the world has been so terrible…they have gone into themselves and disconnected the conscious part of their brain." A large majority of healthcare professionals are confident trauma and dread were two critical factors in understanding this mysterious illness as many of the affected children have reportedly witnessed extreme acts of violence executed upon themselves and their parents. Notably, one child was forced to watch their family friend being tortured and shot at point-blank range after being found guilty of owning a Wi-Fi company.

Despite these accounts of severe trauma, right-wing politicians, xenophobic individuals, and even a few physicians believe the children are entirely faking their symptoms. The children are deemed "bratty" and "unruly"; this is simply a con to manipulate the immigration system into remaining in Sweden or a means for a young child to act out their favorite fairytale stories. On popular Swedish conservative websites, where conspiracy theorists frequent, an archive of podcasts and blog posts concerned with Uppgivenhetssydrom dominate the political arena. One podcast, in particular, infamously known as Weekend Warrior, attempts to persuade its viewers that these apathetic children are paid actors on behalf of the parents and further claims that pro-immigration activists are "suckers." This questioning attitude to this tragedy affects the medical response and treatment for these children--making a case for anti-deportation laws and advocating for cultural sensitivity. While this investigation into Uppgivenhetssydrom details the horrific conditions forced on emotionally scarred children, this phenomenon also exposes gaps where human rights have unequivocally failed. With growing political and nuclear tensions growing worldwide, we have to ask ourselves: How long until this syndrome reaches the rest of the world? If slipping into a coma is synonymous with the safety of a cocoon, how dire are our children's lives?

Although Sweden has been deemed the most "refugee-friendly" country in all of Europe, overburdened welfare systems compounded by scarce public resources exacerbate the fear that Sweden will soon turn away vulnerable families. As over 163,000 people applied for asylum in Sweden in 2015, the country took in more refugees per capita than any other country in the continent. The Swedish Migration Board is "the authority that considers applications from people who want to take up permanent residence in Sweden, come

for a visit, seek protection from prosecution or become Swedish citizens." The Swedish Migration Board saw that many of those affected by this phenomenon were at risk for deportation, thus granting their parents' residency permits. However, there are many loopholes in the immigration policy established by this governmental agency. With such vague phrasing in their policy, members of the board began defining what was proper suffering to be granted refuge. Eventually, the Swedish Migration Board established a new diagnostic to categorize symptoms of Uppgivenhetssydrom. Under this new diagnostic, refugees had to prove that circumstances in their home country were particularly distressing or severe injury would result in their return. Not surprisingly, governmental officials in Sweden began seeing Uppgivenhetssydrom as too obviously political. Conservatives felt the issue of Uppgivenhetssyndrom was a massive con, while progressives felt Sweden was on the verge of a moral collapse. All the while, from the outside, Sweden looked like a humanitarian utopia.

At its core, this debate goes back to the Foucauldian language of biopower and biological citizenship. Defining biopower as a political technology to manage and support human flourishing, Foucault further explains biological citizenship as the forms of belongings, rights, and demands for access to care that each citizen holds. The salient word being citizen. Objectors overlook the structural violence faced by children like nine-year-old Sophie. Instead, they fear that somewhat scarce resources will be diverted to foreigners--a typical side effect of growing nationalism. Although there is no discernible solution to preventing trauma-induced Uppgivenhetssyndrom, one thing we can extrapolate from the mysterious illness is that biopower and biological citizenship may not be coterminous. So, what happens when making claims on the state to better one's life fails? With over sixty children set to be diagnosed with Uppgivenhetssyndrom this year alone, soon, they will slip into the safe cocoon that is catatonia.

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