CONTEMPORARY PSYCHOANALYTIC VIEWS ON THE EXPERIENCE OF IMMIGRATION

Ainslie, Ricardo C. PhD
Tummala-Narra, Pratyusha PhD
Harlem, Andrew PhD
Barbanel, Laura EdD
Ruth, Richard PhD

¹Department of Educational Psychology, University of Texas at Austin
²Department of Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology, Boston College
³Clinical Psychology Program, California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA
⁴Manhattan Institute for Psychoanalysis, New York, NY
⁵Professional Psychology Program, The George Washington University

The Division of Psychoanalysis' Immigration Task Force was charged with writing an article summarizing our current understandings key dimensions of this important issue. The Task Force Chair is Laura Barbanel, EdD.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Ricardo C. Ainslie, Department of Educational Psychology, 1 University Station, D-5800, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712–5800. [email protected]

Psychoanalytic Psychology 30(4):p 663-679, October 2013. | DOI: 10.1037/a0034588

Though one could argue that the history of psychoanalysis is intimately linked with the experience of immigration, the fact is that psychoanalytic theorizing about this experience, and its implications for treatment, have lagged far behind, even as psychoanalytic theorists have increasingly examined other nontraditional topics, such as those having to do with culture, class, and race. In this article, we address several of the key issues that are relevant to a contemporary psychoanalytic understanding of immigration as a psychological experience, as well as the implications of this experience for psychoanalytic treatment when the patient, the analyst, or both are immigrants. In some areas, we also draw from literature outside of psychoanalysis in an effort to bridge and expand theoretical conversation with other disciplines. Among the topics and themes that we explore are loss and mourning, language, ethnic identification and racism, therapeutic variables, trauma, and generational issues.