Migration as an Unconscious Search for Identity: Some Reflections on Language, Difference and Belonging

Abstract

The author addresses some issues regarding patients who relocate and who struggle with adaptation to a new reality. She argues that emigration is a complex psychological phenomenon that requires a therapist to pay special attention to the issue of language, difference and identity, and suggests that the issues of different culture and language in analytic psychotherapy need to be considered as part of a wider cultural context to which we all belong, rather than a specialized area of interest. The paper illustrates, through the clinical example of an East European male patient, that the psychic work of emigration can be understood as a process of integrating splits between pre-and post-migration selves. The author concludes that the analyst needs to let herself be involved as a 'real person' to reach the non-interpretative aspects of the patient's psyche through a mutuality of shared experience to promote a change.

Whose heritage? What inheritance?: conceptualising family language identities

“…He doesn't like the language I think' (Germanspeaking mother of 5-year-old girl, interview). The language respondents used to describe friction and discontent spoke of confusion, similar to the findings of Czubinska (2017). It also showed that reasons behind language choices and preferences were unexplored in families.…”

“…Davidson, Guénette, and Simard 2016). Czubinska (2017) explores the psychological and psychoanalytical implications attached to maintaining one's home language, and considers the development of 'preand post-migration selves'. She describes the confusion in immigrant families, where children may not be aware of the emotional attachment and links to identity the home language may hold for the parent.…”

“…All interviewed parents were very competent English speakers. In such circumstances, especially when the other parent does not speak the heritage language, the need to maintain the heritage language moves from pragmatic to emotional, and may be linked with the notion of a pre-and post-migration self, as explored by Czubinska (2017), with parents seeking to create links to they consider a vital part of their own identity (Norton 2013). Eighty-one percent of parents responding to the questionnaire considered it as 'very important' or 'essential' for their children to learn the heritage language 'because [they] cannot imagine [their] children not speaking the heritage language'.…”

Difference – is it hated or desired? Reflections on the totalitarian state of mind

“…Difference and identity have always been linked, as there can be no identity without difference. In my previous writing (Czubinska ), I explored the concept of identity in some detail. A critical discourse on difference has taken place in the field of philosophy (see Laruelle ) but these enquiries are not compatible with psychoanalytic views, which are based on human experience and subjectivity.…”

Great Aunt Edna’s Vase: Metaphor Use in Working With Heritage Language Families

“…This article explores the affordances of one particular metaphor—Great Aunt Edna’s Vase—as a way to help family members in multilingual contexts to review their and others’ emotional links with the heritage language, by likening the language to a vase that gets passed down the generations, with each generation and individual developing their own emotional response to this inheritance. While emotional connections to heritage languages have seen various explorations in the literature (Chen, Kennedy, & Zhou, 2012; Okita, 2002), the explicit link to mental health is receiving increasing attention (Little, 2017; Czubinska, 2017), especially in work that considers the entire family and intergenerational relationships. Bi- and multilingual children are not simply double or multiple monolinguals, and the intricacies between language and identity need exploring from a multilingual rather than a monolingual perspective (García, 2009).…”