When migration is used as a defence against painful realities: Some experiences of working with English-speaking patients in Germany

Abstract

In this paper, I discuss three small observations that I have made in the course of my years of working with English-speaking patients in Berlin. First, I will show how the experience of moving from one country to another tends to increase the likelihood of the use of primitive defence mechanisms as a protection against the difficulties of everyday life and in relationships in the new country. Second, I suggest that moving around the world has become a significant component of modern living in a globalised world. The danger of this social development is an increase in the use of splitting and in the use of ‘psychic retreats’ [Steiner, J. (1993). Psychic retreats. London: Routledge] in an attempt to uphold an idealised inner and outer world without pain or conflict. Third, I would like to underline the importance in psychoanalysis of helping the patient to mourn the losses he has experienced (the loss of his home country but also inner losses), and accepting the ‘facts of life’ [Money-Kyrle, R. (1971). The aim of psychoanalysis. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 52, 103–106] which he had previously denied, with the aim of integrating past and present, inner fantasy and outer reality, and the various experiences of self that he has made in his various countries.

Keywords:

• migration
• insecure attachment
• psychic retreats
• depressive position
• Money-Kyrle's ‘facts of life’

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Jeremy Holmes and Heinz Weiss for their helpful comments on the case material and paper.

Notes

1. Some details of this case have been changed to protect confidentiality.