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It is a curious phenomenon that, although American psychoanalysis owes much of its vitality to the contributions of immigrants, almost nothing has been written about the pain of migration and exile.
The Grinbergs, natives of Argentina who now reside in Spain, attempt to close this gap in the psychoanalytic literature with their book, Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Migration and Exile. The work is a comprehensive, fascinating treatment of the most salient psychological facets of migration and exile.
Written in a Bionian/Kleinian frame of reference and primarily from the vantage point of object relations, the book deals with the vicissitudes of migration. The authors, using migration as a metaphor, present a view of human development as a succession of migrations, whereby each developmental step demands a greater distance from the primary objects. They state: "Each new step can be taken if the child can mourn for every lost or abandoned object relation and if he can devise new forms of relation with the same objects or with new ones" (p. 195).
Early on, the Grinbergs raise the question: "What fuels a person's desire to leave?" They answer it by means of case histories, clinical vignettes, and an inclusive discussion of the various terms and concepts they and others use in talking about migration, i.e., voluntary and involuntary migrations, interior migrations, immigrants as opposed to foreign workers, and exile.
The underlying thesis of the book is that migration, whether forced or voluntary, is traumatic. The changes it involves entail periods of disorganization, pain, and frustration, which, if succesfully worked through, can bring about significant personality