From loss to reconstruction

a psychoanalytic perspective on the migration process

Abstract

Migration constitutes a complex and multifaceted psychosocial process, exerting profound effects on the individual’s psychic organization and identity. Based on a narrative review of classical and contemporary psychoanalytic frameworks, this study proposes an analysis of the migratory process along three main axes: the mourning process arising from multiple object losses, the importance of transitional space and the containing function in psychic adaptation, and identity transformation. Migration inevitably triggers a process of mourning. When elaborated adaptively, it enables the progressive integration of new internal and external realities; conversely, pathological forms of mourning impair the individual’s capacity for affective investment in the new experiential context. The construction of transitional spaces and the presence of figures fulfilling a containing function are fundamental to the symbolic elaboration of losses and to the preservation of self-continuity. The migratory process calls upon the subject to reconstruct an identity narrative that integrates disparate elements from both the culture of origin and the host culture, thus constituting not only a potential source of psychic vulnerability but also an opportunity for identity restructuring.