Abstract
This paper presents ethnographic reflections from my fieldwork in a mental health assistance program for refugees in the city of São Paulo, and in other contexts. I point to how the notion of trauma, which entails a kind of suffering that takes place in a past time, is mobilized by the mental health service, but not by the subjects assisted by them, that mobilize present and future temporalities when requesting this kind of aid, demonstrating how these approaches and interventions are reformulated or not when facing these distinct temporalities of suffering.
Keywords:
refugees; mental health; trauma; racism; anthropology