Nella mia famiglia

Abstract

Interpersonal and Relational psychoanalysts are comfortable approaching categories of race and gender as socially constructed—and as fertile ground for the exploration and co-construction of new meanings in the process of psychotherapy. Using myself as an example, I focus on a particular aspect of gender, ethnicity, and race, and how their meanings are sometimes forged in a family environment where the sense of identity is part and parcel of ongoing social trauma, and where survival means staying within the invisible boundaries set by the anxiety-laden compromises of previous generations. Of central concern is the role of witness and the conflicts and complexities that come with it.

Keywords:

• intergenerational
• trauma
• gender
• race
• ethnicity
• Italian American
• witnessing

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ann D'Ercole

Ann D'Ercole, Ph.D. A.B.P.P., is clinical associate professor of psychology at the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis where she is both teaching faculty and supervisor. She is Distinguished Visiting Faculty at the William Alanson White Institute. She is co-editor of Uncoupling Convention: Psychoanalytic Approaches to Same-Sex Couples and Families (2004). Dr. D'Ercole is in private practice in New York City.