Discussion of “Emmy Grant: Immigration as Repetition of Trauma and as Potential Space”: Commentary on Paper by Veronica Csillag

Abstract

This commentary is a response to Veronica Csillag’s exploration of the influence of historical and transgenerational trauma on the lives of immigrants, and on the psychoanalytic process (this issue). Dr. Csillag’s paper deepens our understanding of the intrapsychic life of immigrants who have suffered collective trauma pre-migration and continue to suffer from “ghosts” from the past. Her ideas are critical to examining not only the specific traumas incurred in Europe related to the Nazi Holocaust and totalitarian and socialist regimes but also to contemporary traumas related to social identity and position in the United States. In this commentary, I elaborate three primary areas within Dr. Csillag’s contribution: (a) the illusion of choice in traumatic migration, (b) secrecy and privacy, and (c) experience of the outsider and the insider. My discussion underscores the importance of engaging with historical and ongoing trauma in psychoanalytic psychotherapy as a path to healing within individual and collective dimensions.

This article refers to:

Emmy Grant: Immigration as Repetition of Trauma and as Potential Space

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Notes on contributors

Pratyusha Tummala-Narra

Pratyusha Tummala-Narra, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology at Boston College. She is also in independent practice in Cambridge, MA. She has presented and published on the topics of immigration, trauma, cultural competence, and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. She is the author of Psychoanalytic Theory and Cultural Competence in Psychotherapy, published by APA Books in January 2016.