The beginnings of psychoanalysis is closely linked with experiences of displacement and migration. Many analysts (including Freud) were displaced during the rise of Nazi Germany and during the second world war. However, only until recently has the experience of migration been directly addressed and discussed in the psychoanalytic field.
Migration today occurs for a multitude of reasons. Some may be the result of environmental disasters and damage because of global warming and pollution – which disproportionately effects colonized countries. Other reasons include political turmoil, instability, and war. Some may flee persecution based on their political or religious beliefs or minority identities. Some choose to leave their countries because of deteriorating economic conditions, seeking work abroad to support themselves and their families. Some people may migrate by choice, while others are forced to flee detrimental conditions. Whatever the reason or context, the migratory experience is often one that is filled with difficulties and challenges. Often-times, it includes traumatic experiences and re-traumatization resulting from discrimination or detention. How are these dramatic shifts in people’s environments and lives reflected in their internal worlds?
What are the implications of loss?
Migrants have to endure not only the loss of loved ones and their social/familial connections, but also the loss of spacial, cultural, and environmental contexts that they are familiar with. This loss can trigger earlier losses experienced during early childhood leading to a form of regression. This regression can manifest in several ways, but it is exacerbated when migrants are forced to live in refugee camps or detention facilities whereby they have to depend on NGOs and facilities for their basic needs. This recreates both internally and externally the state of an infant who is dependent on their primary caretaker. This can trigger the unconscious reenacting of traumas that occurred in early childhood.
This contextual reality can place a person in a depressive position in terms of psychoanalytic types. Defense mechanisms associated with this type are reaction formation, when a person behaves opposite to what they feel; and turning against oneself, which is a displacement where a person directs their anger and aggression felt towards others towards themselves.
In addition to regression to dependent states resembling infancy, the loss of identity and status that can result from migration can also have a detrimental impact on individuals. Being forcibly displaced, particularly, can result in a traumatic split of the ego. This means a conflicting and contradicting attitude is formed towards the self and perhaps others. This is the opposite of integrating of the various aspects of self and others and operates on a more black and white basis.
People who experience traumatic and violent events during or before their migration are also susceptible to shifting to paranoid/schizoid positions. In the paranoid position, the person is affected mostly by feelings of aggression, shame, and fear (such as fear of annihilation). While the schizoid position is related to withdrawal, avoidance, and fear.
What feelings are felt on loss of language, race and ethnicity?
The loss of culture and people can also be accompanied by a loss of one’s main language. Languages are related to ways in which people think and process information. A person’s first language is often the language of the superego and the rules and order learned during childhood. It is also a direct link to early experiences. Second languages used during therapy can lead to less prohibition in speaking as it surpasses the language of the superego (the native language of early experience and its rules). On the other hand, it can also distance the person from the emotional aspects of early experiences and memories. Loss of language and the need to integrate a new language and culture can lead some to abandon or deny their own cultural identification as a defense mechanism for self-protection. This can lead to the creation of a false self that can fit into the new environment which can cause internal conflict.
The conflict of integrating the loss of culture, space, and people with the new culture, space, and others can lead to transformation and change in the form of a need for recreation in identity. Some versions of the self are left behind to accommodate new values in the recreation of the self. The parts of the self that are lost (in relation to one’s past) are dissociated but can still be represented in unconscious choices, associations, and dreams.
External realities such as race and ethnicity are part of intra-psychic experience. It is important to note that most migrants are non-white and non-European people who migrate to colonial countries. Racism and being placed as a racial minority after migration can be highly disorganizing for one’s sense of self. This leads to struggles in adapting to the new environment due to unattainable ideals of whiteness and goodness/badness values being dependent on the color of their skin. Ambivalent views towards themselves and their otherness by local residents can be internalized and become another source of inner conflict.
What are the dynamics of the therapeutic relationship?
Intersections of patients’ and therapists’ identities, race, and spirituality shape the therapeutic relationship. Racial and religious tensions and power dynamics can be mirrored within the therapeutic setting depending on both the patient and therapist’s explicit and implicit views on racial similarity and difference. In addition, therapists can make implicit assumptions about clients’ normality/abnormality based on the client’s attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. It is therefore of great importance for therapists to acknowledge these factors and to be aware of their own racial/other subjectivities. It is important to remember that much of theory formulation on abnormality is culturally embedded and can therefore vary across cultures and social value systems. Often-times, therapists choose to be silent about racial issues and power dynamics, but as they are part of the transference and counter-transference (projections and transferring of relational feelings and patterns towards client/therapist) experience between the client and therapist, it is important for the therapist to be actively aware of them and acknowledge them. A good contemporary example can be found in the Netflix series Ethos, where the therapist is seen to struggle with her client. The counter-transference of her feelings and experiences with religious working-class people is heavily felt by her during her sessions. Her own values, identity, and beliefs play an important part in how she interacts with her client. Therefore, it is important to stress self-reflection and acknowledgment of positions and differences within the therapeutic setting.
Written By: Fatema Meamari
Edited by: Gözde Özbek, Uzman Klinik Psikolog
Referanslar:
Ainslie, R. C., Tummala-Narra, P., Harlem, A., Barbanel, L., & Ruth, R. (2013). Contemporary psychoanalytic views on the experience of immigration. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 30(4), 663–679. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0034588
Coster, N. D. (n.d.). The Other language: A few psychoanalytic thoughts about migration, the loss of culture and language. Psychoanalysis Today. Retrieved June 28, 2021, from https://www.psychoanalysis.today/en-GB/PT-Articles/De-Coster144613/A-few-psychoanalytic thoughts-about-migration-and.aspx
Mitchell, S. A., & Black, M. J. (2016). Freud and Beyond: A History of Modern Psychoanalytic Thought (Updated ed.). Basic Books. https://www.amazon.com/Freud-Beyond-History-Psychoanalytic-Thought-ebook/dp/B01AFE3AJ8/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
