Stein denotes "culture shock" as the painful disruption of the "identity of perceptions" between an inner representational world and the externalized outer world. This estrangement occurs as if culture were an object representation. The author uses Volkan's concept of the "linking object" to illustrate that nativistic responses involve the denial of loss and an inability to mourn. The author's work with people who have migrated from the north and northeast United States to the sun belt is used to illustrate this thesis. A case is presented to highlight the author's view that