| E-mail | cpsgen (non Essex users should add @essex.ac.uk) |
| Thesis title | Migration and Resilience - A Jungian Perspective |
| Abstract | This study plans on linking three fields (migration, resilience, and Jungian psychology), aiming at providing some analytical aspects of who we might call ‘the resilient migrant’ from the Jungian standpoint. This work has surpassed the ‘pathology model’ and in totality refers to a ‘resilience’ or ‘surviving’ model.
Migration can be seen as a trauma or as a crisis; in both cases, migration is linked to psychoanalysis because trauma is a key concept of all analytical theories. Both meanings (trauma or crisis) may be perceived in a dual way: either as a challenge, as an opportunity for growth or as a danger, possibly leading to negativity or resignation. Thus, migration can either endanger or empower.
Resilience, on the other hand, is a psychological concept with such a plurality of definitions. Within the context of this thesis, resilience is used in accordance with the new terms of ‘trauma activated growth’ or ‘adversity activated development’; it refers to the individual’s development of personality due to a traumatic situation.
Hopefully, much of Jung’s theories may be considered appropriate for a deeper understanding of the dynamics of resilient migrants; such dynamics include psychic energy aiming at adaptation as well as exposure to trauma and suffering. Jungian psychology may give a new perspective on migration as it proclaims that suffering is not an illness but an anticipated element of one’s life. Furthermore, the differentiation between inner and outer adaptation relates to resilience and to subjectivity or subjectively perceived life satisfaction; the individual who neglects one’s inner needs cannot achieve a good level of adaptation and consequently would not be considered a resilient migrant.
Postmodernity and the contemporary context are also fundamental when considering that human beings are culturally shaped. Through the contact with other cultures – that is, otherness – are we able to acknowledge our own cultural identity; through comparison we understand who we are. |