A PSYCHOANALYTIC

STUDY OF
LE6NGRINBERG.
ALD.
ITS NORMAL AND REUECAGRINBERG.
M.D.

PATHOLOGICAL
ASPECTS

A s OLD AS MANKIND, HUAIAN MIGRATIONS have been exam-

ined from many points of view. Numerous studies have
considered their historical, cultural, sociological, political, and
economic implications. It is remarkable, however, that this
theme has received little attention from the psychoanalysts, es-
pecially since they themselves have been involved in migration
during their analytic careers.
T h e decision of an individual o r a group to emigrate de-
pends on internal and external motivations. An individual's
past, his predominant psychological characteristics, and the
moment in his life will determine whether or not he decides to
emigrate and, if he does, the quality of the migration. A situ-
ation of personal (or collective) crisis can lead to a migration
which, in turn, can be the origin of new crises.
T h e phenomenon of migration can trigger different types
of anxieties in the subject who emigrates: sepnrutiotz anxiety, su-
perego anxieties over loyalties and values, persecutoty anxieties when
confronted with the new and unknown, depressive anxieties which
give rise to mourning for objects left behind and for the lost
parts of the self, and confzisiot2al anxieties because of failure to
discriminate between the old and the new. These anxieties,

13
14 GRINBERG-REBECA
L E ~ N GRINBERG

together with defensive mechanisms and the symptoms they

may cause, form a part of the “psychopathology of migration”;
the course it takes will depend on the individual’s capacity for
working through these anxieties, the feelings of being up-
rooted, and the feelings of loss.

Migration in Myths
Myths have a singular richness of their own. Some myths have
penetrated the field of psychoanalysis with great force. In them
we can see man’s attempt to migrate in search of knowledge,
wherever it may be found and, at the same time, his tendency
to put obstacles in the way of such an attempt to know, pun-
ishing it with “migration-exile-expulsion,” with the resultant
pain, confusion, and loss of communication.
The first migration, then, would date back to Adam and
Eve. Moved by curiosity (symbolized by the serpent), they en-
tered the prohibited area of paradise where they found the tree
of knowledge and ate of its fruit; for this action, they were
driven out, losing paradise with all its gratifications and con-
ditions of security and pleasure.
Oedipus also underwent several migrations. First of all, the
condemnation of Oedipus to death, to prevent the fulfillment
of the oracle, was substituted by a migration which took him
far from his real parents and his original group. The second
migration came about when, believing he was escaping from
the oracle’s prediction, he fled from his adoptive parents and
went to Thebes. The third “migration” is his exile, following
the parricide and incest.
The enigma of the sphinx would also be an expression of
man’s curiosity about himself, a curiosity that finds expression
in Oedipus’s determination to pursue his search in spite of the
warnings of Tiresias. Oedipus’s blindness combines the pun-
ishment of both sins: he loses his eyes, symbols of the sexual
organs which suffer castration and also the instruments for
satisfying curiosity. Exile converts the movement of seeking, a
voluntary migration, into forced migration.
 hlIGRATION 15

In the myth of the tower of Babel, the urge to migrate is

expressed in the desire to reach heaven in order to attain knowl-
edge of another world, different from the known world. But
his desire is punished with the confi~sion of tongues and the
destruction of the power of communication. We could apply
the content of this myth to what may happen to an immigrant
who, on reaching the “new world,” different from the world
he knows, may find strong internal obstacles to his integration
in the environment, such as learning the language, adopting
customs and standards, with the danger of falling into confu-
sion.

Develojnnent and Migration

The development of a human being can be seen, metaphori-
cally, as a succession of migrations by means of which the in-
dividual progressively moves away from his first objects.. As
Mahler (1965) has pointed out, the two crucial phases in the
formation of identity are: “separation-individuation,” rein-
forced by experiences of locomotion, and “resolution of bi-
sexual identity in the phallic stage.” If the mother’s capacity for
support has been good, the child will be able to carry out the
different developmental “migrations,” and even actual migra-
tions, if they occur, without subsequent disorders. However, if
the relationship with the mother has been negative, lacking
adequate “holding,” and the father has not been able to change
this situation, the result might be future symptoms of excessive
dependence or, on the contrary, an inability to develop roots
and an illusory search for other “earth-mothers.” Obviously,
under these conditions, migrations tend to fail.
The oedipal conflict forces a new withdrawal from the first
love objects, equivalent to exogamic “migration” imposed by
totemistic laws on the primitive horde to avoid breaking the
taboos of incest and parricide. It then becomes necessary to
abandon interest in the parental couple and go forth to find
new worlds, such as school, new knowledge, objects and so-
cializing patterns.
16 GRINBERG-REBECA
L E ~ N GRINBERG

Adolescence is the period of life when the need for leaving

the parents and beginning the exogamic seeking is most no-
torious, in view of the heightened biological and psychic pos-
sibilities of consummating oedipal fantasies. There is an attempt
to “migrate,” then, to “more distant worlds,!’ seeking substitute
figures for the parental couple and for other groups of be-
longing.
I n adulthood, the individual carries out other “migrations,”
marries, assumes new roles, all of these implying a new with-
drawal from objects.
Old age implies another developmental crisis, due to the
anxieties brought about by its real limitations, aggravated by
illness, loss of abilities and productivity, loss of work, and the
reactivation of death anxiety. Freud (1915) has pointed out the
need to work through and accept the idea of death; this would
be a sort of preparation for the “last migration,” the “last voy-
age.”
Progressive withdrawal from the parental figures is a nec-
essary condition for human development toward independence
and maturity. Migration itself is not indispensable; it is an even-
tuality of life, but, if necessary or desired, it can be carried out
with sufficient possibilities of success, provided the life stages
leading to independence have been fulfilled satisfactorily.

Migration, Trauma and Crisis

hligration is not an isolated traumatic experience that manifests
itself at the moment of departure-separation from the place of
origin, or that of arrival in the new, unfamiliar place where the
individual will settle down. Migration would fall into the cate-
gory of the so-called “cumulative” and “tension” traumas, with
reactions not always-spectacular, but with profound and lasting
effects.
T h e specific quality of reaction to the traumatic experience
of migration is the feeling of helplessness. This feeling is based
on the experience of object loss which may bring as a conse-
 MIGRATION 17

quence the threat of disintegration and dissolution of the ego.

This risk is experienced more intensely if important situations
of privation and separation have been suffered during child-
hood, resulting in experiences of anxiety and helplessness.

Who Are the Emigrants?

In general, the term migration has been used strictly to define
the geographical mobility of persons who move, either individ-
ually, in small groups, or in large masses, and remain for a
sufficiently long time to imply the need to be in another place
and there carry out the activities of daily living. However, al-
though it may not correspond to the usual definition, from the
psychological point of view, we could also consider as migration
the move from a small town to a large city, exchanging city life
for the country, coming down from the mountain to the plain
and, for certain very sensitive and deeply rooted persons, even
moving from one home to another. It is also important to es-
tablish a distinction between the so-called “foreign workers”
and the true immigrants. Finally, there are the persons who
find themselves forced to live outside their country: they make
u p the large group of exiles, refugees, displaced persons, or
deportees, for-political, ideological, or religious reasons, who
have no possibility of returning to their country of origin.
One could speak, therefore, of voluntary emigration and
forced emigration. Sometimes emigration takes place because
of resistance to change and fear of loss of certain values and
living conditions. Many of those who emigrate for this reason
are accustomed to seek places which, although geographically
distant, present characteristics similar to those of the place
where they have lived. In such cases, it would be possible to
speak of “sedentary migrations,” since the immigrants seek to
avoid what is new or different in order to recreate and preserve,
unchanged, what is known and familiar. They depart in order
not to change.
In general terms, individuals could be classified into two
18 L E ~ N
GRINBERG-REBECA GRINBERG

large categories with regard to the migratory tendency: those

who always need to be in contact with familiar people and
places, and those who enjoy being able to go to unfamiliar places
and begin neiv relationships. In this sense, B a h t (1959) coined
two terms, ochnophilia and philobatism. Ochnophilic persons
tend to cling to security and stability; they are characterized by
their enormous attachment to persons, places, and objects; they
cannot live alone. The philobats, on the contrary, avoid ties;
they tend toward a more independent lifestyle, oriented toward
seeking neiv and exciting experiences, travel and adventure;
they leave human and physical objects without sorrow or pain;
and they are the ones most inclined to emigrate in search of
unknown horizons and with goals that may involve risk. Neither
of these categories by itself constitutes a sign of mental health.
It would perhaps be desirable to achieve a good integration of
both in order to be able to react appropriately to life circum-
stances.
Some authors maintain that the tendency to emigrate is
greater in persons with schizoid personalities, who appear to
lack roots. Others affirm that the tendency to emigrate is found
only in those who possess a strong ego with the capacity for
facing risks. One of these risks is the experience of loneliness
which every emigrant suffers. As Mnnicott (1958) has pointed
out, the capacity for being alone is one of the most important
traits of emotional maturity. In other words, the child who feels
excluded by the parental couple in the oedipal situation and is
able to master his jealousy, frustration, and hate, enlarges his
capacity for being alone. This capacity implies the fusion of
aggressive and erotic impulses, tolerance of his ambivalent feel-
ings, and the possibility of identification with each of his par-
ents. In the experience of emigration, the individual who has
been able to internalize good objects will be in a better position
to tolerate the frustration of separation.

Going Away
What nourishes the desire to go away? Sometimes the desire
to go away may occur as a surprise to the individual himself,
 MIGRATION 19

like a thought out of thin air. For others, the decision to travel
may correspond to a long-cherished desire. It may involve a
search for new horizons, new experiences, other forms of cul-
ture and philosophies of life. This would correspond to the
eagerness for knowledge and the desire to discover something
faraway and unknown, perhaps something forbidden or ideal-
ized.
The desire to go away may also result from a need to escape
persecution. In such instances it does not involve heading to-
ward the unknown, which is felt to be good or better, but rather
escaping from what is familiar, which is perceived as bad or
harmful.
The philobatic and ochnophilic attitudes, to which we re-
ferred earlier, are found in different proportions in everyone,
producing the conflicts of ambivalence which are generated by
the desire to go away.
The person who decides to emigrate needs support to carry
out this decision and face the anger and criticism of the aban-
doned objects: friends, neighbors, colleagues, relatives, etc. The
world of persons around him begins to divide according to the
attitude adopted regarding his plans for leaving; some con-
gratulate and encourage him, even envy him, and others be-
come depressed and anxious.
A patient reported the strong reaction of one of his closest
friends. to his decision to spend several years abroad because
he had received a research grant. His friend turned pale and
exclaimed, his voice trembling with emotion and anxiety, “What
a void!” With this exclamation he synthesized the feelings of
loss and emptiness produced by the unexpected news. In con-
trast with this experience, the same patient commented on the
reactions of manifest envy and hostility expressed by other col-
leagues upon learning of his plans.
For the person who goes away, the atmosphere, in general,
takes on various colorings in relation to his plans: the place he
intends to leave may be painted black and its defects magnified
in order to justify going away; at the same time, the charms of
20 L E ~ N
GRINBERG-REBECA GRINBERG

the new location tend to be exaggerated. But these feelings can

be rapidly reversed, since in this situation the individual is on
“the razor’s edge” (Grinberg, 1978).
In spite of all the possible nuances and varieties of reaction,
it is painful to leave and it also hurts, sometimes a great deal,
to see others go away. At times, this pain is masked by matters
of the moment, by bureaucratic preoccupations or contingen-
cies, or by the excitement and expectations aroused by the
move; at other times, it is poignantly experienced. A patient
recalled her leave-taking in these words:
Leaving was awful. It was very h a r d . . . a terribly
painful tearing away. I was leaving everything behind and
going to find a future . . . and only God, if He exists, could
know what it would be like. ... 1 couldn’t erase from my
sight the faces of my family and friends at the airport,
looking at us from the other side of a glass wall, where
they could no longer hear us or touch us. I could see them
as in a photograph or a film, but I wouldn’t be able to
embrace them for a long time, for I knew that our destinies
were uncertain, theirs as well as mine. I had to call on all
my strength in order not to burst out crying and, even so,
I felt my heart was bleeding as I left everything that had
been my past, my entire Iife, my dearest loved ones and
my home, which for years had been my pride, now turned
into a desert.
When psychic pain is not tolerated in the form of depressive
suffering, it may turn into a feeling of persecution that causes
the departure to be experienced, on a deep level, as a feeling
of being driven away from home and of being unwanted, even
though one is leaving on one’s own initiative. Very strong affects
may also be blocked, isolated, and repressed with a numbing
effect.
Another way of counteracting the pain of separation is to
live through it with an elated or even manic reaction, denying
sorrow and experiencing feelings of triumph over the ones who
 MIGRATION 21

stay behind, who are perceived as limited, incompetent, or ex-

posed to dangers o r hardships. Defenses such as denial, isola-
tion, and reversal of affect usually arise when strong guilt
feelings about those left behind are added to the pain of sep-
aration. To the extent that the individual can work through the
experience of his migration gradually; integrating the denied
and split aspects and feelings, he will have “grown” sufficiently
to be able to “suffer” his pain. Having experienced the “growing
pains,” he will have greater knowledge of the experiences he
has lived through.
T o be an emigrant, then, i s very different from knowing
that one is emigrating. It implies assuming fully and profoundly
the absolute truth and responsibility inherent in this condition.

The emigrants on the ship or plane carrying them to a world

still unreal to them are not aware, until they have lived through
the experience, that a long time will pass, even after they have
reached temu f i r m , before it is experienced as really solid
ground.
The insecurities of newly arrived immigrants are deter-
mined not only by the uncertainties and anxieties of facing the
unknown, but also by the inevitable regression that accompanies
these anxieties. It is this regression which makes them feel help-
less and, at times, inhibits them from making effective use of
the resources available to them.
Kafka describes this situation in an eloquent and moving
way in his novel Ainerika (1927). When Karl, his young protag-
onist, prepares to disembark in New York, carrying his trunk
on his shoulder, he is overwhelmed with emotion when he sees
the Statue of Liberty. However, his euphoria quickly changes
to dismay when a few minutes later he becomes aware of the
disappearance of his trunk, which he had left beside a stranger
for a few minutes to go in search of an umbrella forgotten in
the hustle and bustle of disembarking. He could not understand
22 LEON GRINBERG-REBECA GRINDERG

why, after guarding the trunk zealously throughout the trip,

he had let it be stolen so easily. The loss of the trunk sums up,
symbolically, the whole series of losses Karl suffered in migra-
tion: part of his most valuable belongings, of his identity, and
the transient loss of ego capacities due to the impact of arriving.
A similar experience was reported by a young patient who
remembers that, when he arrived in the new country where he
planned to practice his profession, he left the diploma ac-
crediting his professional status, his most precious patrimony,
in a taxi.
The stranger who steals the trunk of Kafka’s character
represents all the unfamiliar things that confuse the newcomer.
Some already familiar person or group is needed to help him
become integrated, to assume the function of “mothering” and
“containing,” which will permit him to survive and get reor-
ganized. The immigrant’s search for someone to trust, to take
over, or neutralize anxieties and fears, may be compared to the
infant’s desperate search for the familiar face of the mother
when he is left alone.
Bowlby (1960) took an ethological model as a basis for the
development of his theory of attachment, which studies the
baby’s link with confidence-inspiring figures that quell the anx-
iety of separation. In the psychoanalytic theory of object rela-
tions, this figure always represents an internalized mother with
protective characteristics, who allays anxieties and offers con-
tact, comfort, and guidance.
In the same way, in order to make possible the reactivation
of the protective function of his good intrapsychic object rep-
resentations, which are temporarily inhibited by the anxiety of
separation from familiar situations and by the impact of en-
countering new situations, the immigrant needs to find in the
outer world persons who represent these good internal objects,
along the line of “godparents” or substitute parents. In some
cases, acquaintances, relatives, or fellow nationals already es-
tablished in the new country may fulfill the function ofreceiving
and sheltering the newcomers. Conversely, the lack of a helpful
object may complicate the immigrants’ difficulties.
 hfIGRATION 23

If the conflictual aspect of the internal object links pre-

dominates, it will very probably result in an even deeper regres-
sion, with increased use of more primitive mechanisms and
defenses, more extreme dissociations, more marked denials
when confronted with unpleasant situations, compensating
idealizations of certain partial aspects, frequent and massive use
of projective identifications, etc.
Let us bear in mind that the new communication codes,
which the newcomer must incorporate and which are practically
unknown or poorly understood during his first contacts, in-
crease the level of ambiguity and contradiction in the infor-
mation he receives. One of the consequences is that the
immigrant may feel himself inundated by what for him are
chaotic messages reaching him, or swallowed up by a strange
and hostile world. All of this could constitute culture shock
(Ticho, 197 1; Garza-Guerrero, 1974).
In his regression to more primitive levels of communica-
tion, his emotions usually find expression in such primordial
elements as food, which takes on a peculiarly relevant signifi-
cance, since it symbolizes the earliest and most structuring link
maintained with the mother or ivith her breast. It may happen,
then, that the immigrant will experience aversion for the typical
dishes of the new country and turn longingly to seeking other
foods characteristic of his own country. The immigrant may
also turn to eating in order to alleviate his anxiety, thus re-
creating an “idealized breast,” generous and inexhaustible, with
which he attempts to fill the emptiness left by the various losses
suffered in the transplanting. These meals are usually eaten in
the company of fellow countrymen, as a kind of commemorative
rite; or they are eaten in solitude, sometimes taking on aspects
of compulsive eating, in a frantic search to recover the lost
objects.
In the first period of his immigration, the individual’s mind
is more occupied with the people and places he has left, and
he is often filled with longing and desire for meeting them
again. AS he becomes more involved with his new way of life
24 L E ~ N
GRINBERG-REBECA GRINBERG

and the people around him, he begins to draw away from the
memory of relatives and old friends. Human beings gradually
change, those who have departed as well as those who have
remained. So do habits, life styles, and language (even if the
same language is involved). IVhat does not change, and this is
important because of its influence and later repercussion, is the
nonhuman environment, which becomes a significant part of
the sense of identity. This nonhuman environment, especially
the specific natural surroundings of the individual which have
acquired an intense emotional substrate, is what usually persists
unmodified as an object of longing and symbol of what is his
own. Denford (1981) quotes Searles (1960), who considers the
“nonhuman” world as “a place for experimentation and relief
of tension,” and also quotes Mnnicott’s (1971)concept of “tran-
sitional space” which may be extended to include the “non-
human” world, corresponding to the place where play with the
first objects that are “not-me” and “not-mother” begins. For
Denford, the loss and privation of this nonhuman environment
and these especially valued objects of the old surroundings play
an important role in the immigrant’s evolution, a role as im-
portant as the nostalgia for persons. This explains why many
emigrants try to carry with them all their belongings, old fur-
niture which gets knocked about on the way, clothing they no
longer wear, o r obsolete articles. Small objects or ornaments of
slight practical utility may fulfill this function, which is highly
significant for the sense of identity.
T h e radical change in a patient who had emigrated, pro-
duced by the arrival of her furniture, which had taken longer
to reach its destination than she had, was striking.
Since my arrival, my dreams had been totally crazy;
they didn’t seem to belong to me; I didn’t recognize them.
.
I had never had dreams like these. I wasn’t like myself. . .
But a few days ago, my dreams have again become the way
they always used to be. I think this happened the day I
received my furniture: I felt that I was surrounded by
“my” things; it was thrilling to find myself with them again.
 hi IGKATION 25

Each object brought the memory of a situation, a moment,

a past. I feel more like myself.

Evolution of the Migratoiy Process

Persecutory, confusional, and depressive anxieties may develop
shortly after the initial period of migration. These anxieties are
present as a constant feature in every migratory process, but
vary greatly in intensity, duration, and evolution.
Paranoid anxieties may develop the characteristics of true
panic, because of their intensity when the immigrant confronts
the overwhelming demands that he must meet: loneliness, ig-
norance of the language, finding work and a place to live, etc.
Some persons, because they are unable to overcome such a
challenge, or out of fear of failure, decide upon a hasty return
if the conditions under which they emigrated allow it.
Confusional anxiety arises because of difficulty in differ-
entiating feelings directed at the two primordial points of in-
terests and conflicts: the country and people left behind and
the newfound environment. Sometimes migration can cause
the triangular oedipal situation to be relived with respect to the
two countries, as if they symbolically represented the two par-
ents, evoking ambivalence and conflict of loyalties. At times the
experience is lived as a case of divorced parents, with fantasies
of having established an alliance with one of them against the
other. There are moments when the confusion increases be-
cause of superposition of cultures, languages, places, points of
reference, memories, and experiences of the present, which
become mixed.
Depressive anxieties are determined by massive experi-
ences of loss of everything that has been left behind, with the
fear of never being able to recover it. This makes it necessary
to work through mourning-mourning for the object and for
the lost parts of the self, which is always difficult and, at times,
takes on pathological characteristics.
A patient’s dream, which occurred shortly after her emi-
26 LEONGRINBERG-REBECA GRINBERG

gration, shows the loss of her objects and of parts of her self
experienced with clearly depressive content. She dreams that
she is on her way to meet an aunt of hers, who belonged to the
idealized part of her family and who had influenced her de-
cision to emigrate. On her way, she leaves her purse and sweater
in some shops, intending to pick them up on her return. Every-
thing seemed easy and pleasant, but then everything becomes
difficult. She cannot find her aunt; there are many people on
the street; then her aunt lingers, talking with other people, and
leaves the patient out of the conversation. Suddenly she realizes
that the place where she left her belongings is not on the way.
She hurries back to get them, but the shops are closed and her
things have disappeared. Finally, she does not know exactly
how, she recovers her purse but not her sweater. She is relieved
because her identification documents are in the purse.
The idealized aunt whom the patient is going to meet rep-
resents the idealized country to which she has just arrived.
Along the path of her migration, she has been gradually aban-
doning her belongings. Because of her predominantly manic
mechanisms, she at first gives no importance to what she is
leaving behind, and everything seems easy and agreeable. How-
ever, frustration soon sets in, because she does not feel well-
received by the idealized “aunt-country-mother substitute”; she
feels left out. This is when the feeling of depression arises for
the loss of her belongings, along with the fear of never being
able to recover them. She is only able to rescue her threatened,
shaky sense of identity, which brings relief and counteracts her
fantasy of a more serious depressive collapse, as manifested in
the material of the last sessions prior to her dream.
A study of different forms of guilt and self-punitive re-
actions (Grinberg, 1964) provides us with a better understand-
ing of the dynamics of depression and guilt and of thelikelihood
of developing normal or pathological mourning. In “persecu-
tory guilt” the main elements are: resentment, despair, fear,
and self-reproach. Its extreme manifestation is melancholia and
pathological mourning. In depressive guilt the dominant ele-
 MI G RAT10 N 27

ments are: sorrow, concern for the object, nostalgia, and feel-
ings of responsibility with reparative tendencies ordinarily seen
in normal mourning. In every object loss there occurs simul-
taneously a loss of parts of the self, which leads to its corre-
sponding process of mourning, as in the case of the immigrant.
T h e depressive feelings about the self are much more frequent
than is usually admitted and form part of the phenomena of
the psychopathology of daily life.
Mourning for the lost objects and the lost parts of the self
is accompanied in the newcomer by the anxieties described
above. In extreme cases, these may give rise to true psychotic
states. Migration favors the emergence of latent pathology in
some particularly labile individuals. It has the potential for pro-
viding the starting point for serious psychic disturbances.
We emphasize once again that the process of integration
with the environment will depend on the capacity for tolerating
change and loss, the capacity for being alone, the capacity for
waiting. In sum, it will depend on the subject’s mental integrity.
T h e immigrant attempts to adapt to the new conditions, strug-
gling against confusion, which causes him to turn again and
again to dissociations. Some persons react with manic over-
adaptation, rapidly becoming identified with the habits and
practices of the people of the new country. Others, on the
contrary, cling tenaciously to their own customs and language,
attempting to associate exclusively with their fellow countrymen
and forming closed groups that function like true ghettos.
In order to become integrated into the environment where
he is received, the immigrant must renounce part of his indi-
viduality, at least temporarily. T h e greater the difference be-
tween the new group and the group to which he belonged, the
greater will be his renunciation. Such renunciations or losses
inevitably produce internal conflicts, since they clash with each
individual’s striving to assure his own distinctness from others,
that is, to preserve his identity. In other words, we know that
the individual’s capacity for continuing to feel that he is himself
throughout a succession of changes forms the basis for the
28 LEON GRINBERG-REBECA GRINBERG

emotional experience of identity. It implies the maintenance of

stability throughout the various circumstances and all the trans-
formations and changes of living.
But, what is the tolerable limit beyond which the individ-
ual’s identity may suffer irreparable harm? Consolidation of
the sense of identity depends principally on internalization of
object relations which have been assimilated by the ego through
the functioning of authentic introjective identifications, and not
by the use of manic projective identifications which would give
rise to pseudoidentifications and to a false self. Events that
imply important changes in the individual’s life, as occur in
emigration, may become factors that trigger threats to the sense
of identity. Change inevitably means entering unknown terri-
tory, committing oneself to unforseeable future actions and
facing the consequences.
Elsewhere (Grinberg and Grinberg, 1974), we have devel-
oped the idea that
. . . the sense of identity [is] the outcome of a process of
continuous interaction between three links of integration,
namely the spatial, temporal and social links.
By spatial link we understand the relation with the
different parts of the self including the bodily self, main-
taining its cohesion and enabling the comparison and con-
trast with objects; it tends to the self-non-self differentiation,
i.e. individuation. We call it the link of spatial integration.
The temporal link refers to the relation of different
representations of the self in time, establishing both a con-
tinuity between them and the foundation of a sense of
sameness. We call it the link of temporal integration.
The third link refers to the social aspect of identity
and is given. . . by the relationship between aspects of the
self and aspects of objects [p. 5061.
We believe that migration has a general effect on these three
links, although the disturbance of one link may predominate.
Thus, following a migration, states of disorganization usu-
 hlIGRATION 29

ally appear, to a variable degree, during which very primitive

anxieties may be stirred up, producing a state of panic in the
newcomer, such as the fear of being “torn to pieces” by the new
culture. These experiences may originate in the conflict be-
tween his desire to be like the rest, in order to avoid feeling
left out, and his desire to be different, in order to continue
feeling -his ‘‘own self.” Such a conflict may lead to confusion
and to alienation of his personality, a disharmony between dif-
ferent aspects of his identity. These disturbances affect pre-
dominantly the spacial link and the sense of individuality.
Disturbance of the temporal link may manifest itself by the
mixing of memories with present situations. In its mild forms,
it is expressed by such lapses as giving to places and persons
in the present situation names belonging to others in the past.
Familiar objects with affective significance for the immigrant,
which he brings with him, permit him to recognize, among
other things, his continuity with his oivn past.
T h e social link is the one most obviously affected by emi-
gration. T h e immigrant has lost many of the roles he used to
play in his community, roles that were part of his sense of
identity. As a patient remarked: “In the new country, no one
will know me; no one will know my family; I’ll be a nobody.”
T h e disturbance of this link arouses feelings of not belonging
to any human group that can confirm his oivn existence.
It should be understood that these three links operate si-
multaneously and interact. T h e various parts of the self could
not become integrated in time without also being integrated in
space. On the basis of these spatial and temporal integrations,
the individual is able to establish links with objects of the ex-
ternal world (social link) in a realistic and discriminating man-
ner. One can imagine, then, the suffering implicit in having to
give u p highly valued symbols which characterize his native
group and form the basis of his identity, among them hisculture
and his language. This may be experienced as the equivalent
of a psychic castration and loss of identity.
One’s own language, the mother tongue, never becomes
30 LEON GRINBERG-REBECA GRINBERG

so invested with libido as when one lives in a country with a

different language. All the experiences of infancy, memories,
and feelings related to the first object relations, are bound up
in it and saturate it with special meaning. Anzieu (19’76)speaks
of a “blanket of sound” which surrounds the baby from the
beginning of life, like an enveloping skin which holds the con-
tents together. The mother’s voice, which the nursing infant
recognizes from the first weeks, is like “milk” flowing into his
ear. There is good reason for the important place of lullabies
in the folklore of all cultures.
For his part, when the baby cries, he hears his voice for
the first time. Crying and weeping are bound up in all expe-
riences of separation, such as attempts to get free of something
overwhelming, and are turned into appeals to an object who
will give freedom from need, privation, frustration, and pain.
When the baby begins to integrate his mother’s figure as good
and bad, he also begins to organize sounds: babbling begins,
which will be transformed into words.
Greenson (1950) has emphasized the relation between lan-
guage and the mother. Moreover, he maintains that speech is
a means for preserving the relationship with the mother and
also for withdrawing from her. Words may be experienced as
“milk” so that the baby’s relation to the mother’s breast will
decisively influence his later relation with the mother-tongue.
When learning a new language, an adult learns vocabulary
and grammar in a rational manner; but the accent, intonation,
and rhythm, that is, the “music” of the language, can only be
imitated and incorporated through identification with the
speaker of the language. The neiv language may be used de-
fensively, since the native language is more closely bound to the
more primitive faculties and feelings. A patient of Austrian
origin used to say that “in German the word urinal smells of
urine.”
Some persons demonstrate a striking facility for adopting
a neiv language, but, in addition to a specific gift, this talent
may represent a running away from the native language and
primitive objects which are experienced as persecutory.
 MIGRATION 31

Once this stage is overcome, progress in acquiring the new

language stops at a certain point, which varies for each person,
corresponding to a compromise between imposition of the en-
vironment and internal resistance. Sometimes feelings of em-
barrassment arise when idiomatic expressions are employed,
since this is interpreted as a penetration into the “secret lan-
guage” of the natives, which always retains a mysterious quality
for the foreigner. However, there is also an unconscious fear
of the magic effect of language; the immigrant resists the use
of certain expressions just as a patient may resist the analysis
of his dreams.
I n general, the immigrant has more difficulty than the baby
in identifying himself with his environment and allowing him-
self to be impregnated by the new language. He may therefore
feel alienated within his surroundings. Some persons feel them-
selves to be disguised when using the new ianguage, as though
they had lost the language which they feel to be authentically
theirs.
T h e normal capacity for learning a neiv language should
not make it impossible to use the first language.
One of the big problems facing the immigrant is the dif-
ficulty of finding his place within the neiv community, recover-
ing his social position and the professional status held in his
native country. No one knows him o r his family, and feeling
himself to be anonymous heightens his sense of insecurity.
His feeling of loneliness and isolation increases his depres-
sion regarding his losses, since he no longer has the support of
his usual social and family environment to accompany him in
his mourning (Calvo, 1977). Sometimes the effort to overcome
these feelings on the emotional level results in a displacement
of the conflict to a somatic level. At this time, psychosomatic
disturbances may appear: digestive symptoms (the experience
of migration cannot be “digested”); respiratory symptoms (the
new environment is “stifling”); circulatory symptoms (the en-
vironment and its demands produce “pressure” on arteries and
heart). He is prone to accidents which may be veiled suicidal
32 L E 6 N GRINBERG-REUECA GRINBERG

attempts. In other cases, instead of somatic symptoms, hypo-

chondriacal fears and fantasies are observed.
We should like to point out a peculiar symptom we have
observed in many immigrants who achieve rapid adaptation to
the characteristics, habits, and demands of the new location
shortly after their arrival. They find work, learn the language,
install their family in their home, and even achieve success in
their professional and social relations during their first two or
three years of residence, in a state of apparent psychic and
physical equilibrium. Then, paradoxically, when they could en-
joy the fruits of their efforts and success, they suddenly fall into
a state of profound sadness and apathy which obliges them,
sometimes, to give u p their work and their connection with the
outside environment. We call this the syndrome of “delayed
depression,” which arises apparently when all the manic defen-
ses utilized during this period for achieving and maintaining
a forced adaptation have been exhausted. On occasion, this
delayed depression may be substituted by a somatic manifes-
tation such as a heart attack, gastric ulcer, etc. Another frequent
symptom among immigrants is what we might call the “hypo-
chondria of money,” which is expressed as a fear of poverty
and helplessness, as a result of internal insecurity and the ex-
perience of instability.
T h e relative degree of seriousness of these disturbances
triggered by emigration will depend to a large extent on
whether the person who emigrates does so alone or as part of
a couple or a family. If the couple o r family enjoy solid, stable
links, these will contribute better conditions for tolerating and
confronting the experiences of change. If, on the contrary,
these links are unstable, the situation of emigration will sharpen
the conflicts and will trigger the breakdown of marriages or the
development of problems between parents and children.
If there is a factor that can make a fundamental difference
in the vicissitudes and evolution of the migratory process, it is
the possibility o r impossibility of returning to one’s own country.
This is what marks the character of the migration. In the first
 MIGRATION 33

case, the feeling is that “the doors are open” for an eventual
return; therefore, the pressure of claustrophobic anxiety de-
creases and the emigrant does not find himself on a dead-end
street. In the second case, the situation is defined from the very
beginning: once the path of exodus is taken, there is no alter-
native; there are no further options. That was the situation of
the majority of immigrants from Europe in America during the
last century and beginning of this century. In general, theirs
was the situation of people fleeing from poverty and persecu-
tion, who lacked even the means to go back: they had left coun-
tries where emigration was prohibited, in a clandestine manner;
they fled from extermination during the Nazi period. Such has
always been the case of political refugees and exiles.
Under conditions of forced migration, the process of in-
tegration is usually much more painful. There is more bitter-
ness; hate directed against his own country is greater and,
absurd as it may appear, this is projected onto the receiving
country, which is sometimes regarded as the cause of the im-
migrant’s problems, while he idealizes his home country with
unending nostalgia.
Among the immigrants who cannot go back are the exiles.
Their situation in the new country is complex. They have not
come in search of something, but have fled or been expelled;
they are bitter, resentful, and frustrated. The situation of many
of them is comparable to that of survivors of a war or of political
struggles. This situation also weighs against their integration
in the new environment, since such integration is perceived as
a form of treason to the cause, betrayal of the ones who have
remained behind or who have died. To become integrated, and
to shatter the sacrosant nature with which some immigrants
invest their exile, is also experienced as the loss of an identity
that served to define them.
When they cannot work through their conflicts and their
guilt feelings, they usually project them onto their family or
country receiving them. In this way, they defensively reverse
the situation, becoming very demanding of the new environ-
34 L E ~ N
GRINBERG-REBECA GRINBERG

ment, which they criticize and onto which they project their
own incapacity for giving and protecting. At other times, they
fall into a state of extreme dependency, manifested by intense
oral dependency and the peremptory demand that every need
be satisfied immediately.
When the previous personality of the exile is healthier and
his prior activities have been more linked with reparative and
adaptive tendencies, he will be able to achieve a better integra-
tion, developing highly satisfactory attitudes and activities in
the neiv country. The immigrant will then be able to achieve
healthy goals for himself and for others.
Another aspect of enormous importance is the way the
members of the community receiving the immigrant react to
his arrival and the influence on his development according to
the nature of this reaction. In this regard, we would like to
apply the model of “container-contained” suggested by Bion
(1970) in relation to group process. We think it provides an
eloquent illustration of the different vicissitudes that usually
develop in the interaction between the immigrant and the hu-
man group receiving him. This model is likewise applicable to
the multitude of emotional reactions that arise between the
individual who decides to emigrate and the persons who remain
in the old country, which have been mentioned earlier. We
recognize that container-contained is a metaphor for complex
interrelationships.
Originally, Bion applied this model to show the different
possibilities of evolution of a neiv idea, or of the individual who
bears it, in relation to the establishment group that receives it.
T h e dynamic interaction between the individual or the new idea
(the immigrant) and his surroundings (the country that receives
him) would constitute-in Bion’s words-a “catastrophic change”
with a potentially disruptive force capable of violating the struc-
ture of the group and of the members of the group where such
interaction takes place. In other words, the immigrant, with all
his “baggage” and his specific characteristics, elicits from the
“receiving group” different types of response, the extremes of
which would be enthusiastic reception or absolute rejection.
 hf IGRATION 35

“Catastrophic change” refers to a group of facts that are

bound together by a constant conjunction. Constant conjunc-
tion is a term taken from Hume and refers to the fact that
certain observed data regularly appear together. Among these
we can mention violence, subversion of the system, and invari-
ance. The latter term refers to that element which permits as-
pects of the previous structure to be recognized in the new one.
Migration constitutes a catastrophic change to the extent that
certain structures are transformed into others through a series
of modifications and through moments of disorganization,
pain, and frustration. Once these moments have been worked
through and overcome, the possibility of true growth and en-
riched development of the personality will arise. But migration
may also have consequences that constitute not a catastrophic
change, but a true catastrophe. Whether one or the other of
these contingencies results will depend, to a large extent, on
the form taken by the interaction between the immigrant and
the receiving group. Because of its disruptive force, the new
immigration may threaten to destroy the old group cohesion
and the group, because of an excessive rigidity or defensive
reaction, may “smother” the immigrant, preventing his inte-
gration and development. A third possibility, undoubtedly the
best, is that both may be capable of functioning with sufficient
flexibility for the new group to accept a nonaggressive immi-
grant and for integration and evolution to come about with
mutual benefit to both.
We have considered the reactions of the.immigrant upon
his arrival in the new country. Let us now take a look at what
may happen in the receiving group. In some cases, its latent
paranoia may increase, and the immigrant may be perceived
in a persecutoryway as an intruder who seeks to deprive the
local people of their legitimate rights to work and to enjoy their
possessions and property. In extreme cases, this may reach the
point of intensely xenophobic reactions and marked hostility.
Feelings of rivalry,jealousy, and envy regarding the capabilities
and powers attributed to the “invader” are reinforced. This
36 L E ~ N
GRINBERG-REBECA GRINUERG

may give rise to a complex vicious circle, increasing the immi-

grant’s feelings of persecution and hate when he does not re-
ceive the welcome he expects and needs. On other occasions,
the receiving group reacts very positively to the arrival of the
immigrant, who is treated with cordiality, receiving offers of all
the help he needs to become settled in the neiv place. Finally,
the interaction of the newcomer and the local group may be
nornial and balanced, without falling into the extremes of per-
secution or idealization and facilitating a process of mutual
understanding which will then favor a gradual, more solid and
sure integration.
Integration will be the result of successive complementary
steps which will gradually develop as the result of a fruitful
interaction between the immigrant and his neiv environment;
there will be an adaptation to the neiv culture and object re-
lations and an effective resolution of problems of attachtnent
and allegiance. It is clear, then, that if the immigrant’s previous
personality was sufficiently healthy, the reasons for the migra-
tion justified, the conditions under which it was carried out
adequate, and the new surroundings reasonably welcoming, the
immigrant will gradually become committed to. his new way of
life. If his emotional situation permits him to be realistic, with-
out falling back on denial or extreme dissociations, and accept
limitations, he will be able to apprehend the neiv elements of
the experience and value the positive aspects of the neiv coun-
try. Thus his psychological enrichment and real adjustment to
the environment will become possible.
Little by little, and to the extent to which he has been able
to work through the mourning involved in migration, he will
go o n to feel himself an integral part of the neiv environment
and will come to experience as his own its particular charac-
teristics, such as the language, customs, and culture, while at
the same time maintaining a positive and stable relation with
his former country, with its culture and language, there being
no need to reject it in order to accept and be accepted in the
new situation.
 hl IGRATION 37

Without maintaining that it always follows the same steps, we

could say that the migratory process passes through several
phases.
1. T h e feelings that prevail are those of intense sorrow for
all that has been abandoned or lost, fear of the unknown, and
the very profound experiences of loneliness, privation, and
helplessness. Paranoid, confusional, and depressive anxieties
occupy the scene in turn.
2. This stage may be followed or replaced by a manic state
in which the immigrant minimizes the transcendental signifi-
cance of the change in his life or, on the contrary, magnifies
the advantages of the change and overvalues everything in the
neiv situation, disdaining what has been lost.
3. After a variable period of time, nostalgia appears, and
sorrow for the lost world. The immigrant begins to recognize
feelings previously dissociated or denied and becomes capable
of “suffering” his pain (‘‘growing pains”) while, at the same
time, he becomes more accessible to the slow and progressive
incorporation of elements of the new culture. The interaction
between his internal and external world becomes more fluid.
4. Recovery of the pleasure of thinking and desiring and
of the capacity for making plans for the future, in which the
past is regarded as such and not as a “lost paradise” where one
constantly longs to return. In this period, it could be considered
that mourning for the country of origin has been worked
through to the maximum extent possibIe, facilitating integra-
tion of the previous culture into the neiv culture, without the
need to renounce the old. All of this promotes an enrichment
of the ego and the consolidation of a more evolved sense of
identity.

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Francisco Gemas I I
hladrid 20, Spain