This paper describes the psychic toll the migratory, humanitarian crisis is exacting on the self (and its sacred core) of displaced people worldwide, specifically young children and adolescents, who are currently being held in transit camps. The sacred core is Winnicott’s elaboration of the true self and that which is most deeply personal and private, and “most worthy of preservation”. For exiles held in detention, the self and its core are in urgent need of protection and recognition, as they struggle to exist in what I refer to as The Meantime. The Meantime is when migratory mourning stretches to infinity, resulting in extreme dissociation, or depersonalization, that becomes a collective way of life that destroys reality and the self. In order for the self and reality to survive The Meantime, relationships with “need mediating subjects,” whom I call The Responsibles, must be created.