The Psycho-Geographical Home: “Homemaking” In the Frontier

Abstract

This article proposes a model for exploring the psycho-geographical home incorporating psychoanalytical and geographical perspectives as significant elements for understanding homemaking on the Israeli frontier. It seeks to understand the deeper roots of homemaking in the self through the psychoanalytic lens of object relations, beginning with a brief overview of the psychoanalytic literature connected to notions of home and homemaking. We find that homemaking serves as a mediating practice throughout life, because it projects a person’s internal home representation onto the home itself. The gaps found between the representations of a person’s internal home and that person’s physical/external home are discussed as a ‘potential space’. Residents of Israel’s Arava desert are the subjects of our examination of the multidimensional aspects of home and homemaking, as reflected verbally and visually in interviews, self-directed photographs of the participants’ home space and dynamic observations of their homes.

Keywords:

• homemaking
• home
• psychoanalytic geography
• uncanny
• potential space
• self-directed photography

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

This work was supported by the Department of Environmental Studies at The Porter School of The Environment and Earth Sciences, Tel Aviv University.

Figure 6. Inside Lily’s home.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sigal Eden Almogi

SIGAL EDEN ALMOGI IS A CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST, SUPERVISOR. SHE HAS PH. D. FROM TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY WHERE SHE WROTE HER DISSERTATION, “A HOME IN THE DESERT: A PSYCHO-GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATION OF HOME IN THE ARAVA.” SINCE 2018 SHE HAS BEEN AT POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW IN THE DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL DEVELOPMENT AT BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY OF THE NEGEV (BGU), ISRAEL. SHE IS A SENIOR CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST AT THE STUDENT PSYCHOLOGICAL SERVICES (BGU), AND HAS BEEN A TEACHING ASSOCIATE IN THE FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES, BGU SINCE 2013. SHE IS AN ACTIVE IARPP MEMBER (THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR RELATIONAL PSYCHOANALYSIS). [email protected] [email protected],

Tovi Fenster

PROFESSOR TOVI FENSTER is a professor of geography at Tel Aviv University. She TEACHES SOCIAL AND CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY, URBAN PLANNING, GENDER AND GEOGRAPHY. SHE HAS PUBLISHED ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERS ON ETHNICITY, CITIZENSHIP AND GENDER IN PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT. SHE IS THE FOUNDER AND HEAD OF PECLAB (HTTP://PECLAB.TAU.AC.IL/) (2007-TODAY); SHE IS THE FORMER HEAD OF THE INSTITUTE OF DIPLOMACY AND REGIONAL COOPERATION (2011–2012); FORMER NCJW WOMEN AND GENDER STUDIES PROGRAM HEAD (2007–2009); FORMER CHAIR OF IGU GENDER AND GEOGRAPHY COMMISSION (2004–2008). IN 1999, SHE INITIATED THE ESTABLISHMENT AND HAS BEEN THE FIRST CHAIR (2000–2003) OF BIMKOM-PLANNERS FOR PLANNING RIGHTS IN ISRAEL (NGO). SHE CURRENTLY SERVES AS BIMKOM’S PRESIDENT. [email protected]