The desire for interwovenness with the culture of origin - Migrant families in psychodynamic therapy

The way migration is worked through will, be largely influenced by two aspe cts: the wish for continuity in the personal identity one had build up befo re migrating, as well as the longing for staying interwoven with the social group and the cultural life world one had left. Only when these wishes for continuity and interwovenness are safeguarded, the loss that migration als o has become, can be experienced and mourned. The element of discontinuity inherent in the migration process, then becomes less threatening. Thereby, aspects of "new encountered culture" will become woven into "brought with c ulture". To describe this process of intercultural encounter in a migrant f amily, Winnicott's concept of "potential space" or "transitional space" pro ves to be very apt. We illustrate this with a clinical vignette of a Morocc an family wherein adolescence brings about intergenerational conflicts, sha ped by as well as influencing cultural identifies. This article references to some earlier work of LANFRANCHI (1988, 1993) and of LANFRANCHI and MOLIN ARI (1995) in this journal.