Introduction to the Special Issue on “Where Do We Feel at Home? Perspectives on Belonging and Not Belonging,” Part 2

Abstract

T his is the second of the journal’s two special issues sampling highlights of the proceedings of the International Association for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology’s 2014 International Conference in Jerusalem. The conference theme was “Where Do We Feel at Home? Perspectives on Belonging and Not Belonging.” Although a division between the two issues may appear arbitrary, since the themes in both overlap, it would not be inaccurate to say that the preceding issue had a stronger focus on the explorations of the concepts of “home” or “feeling at home,” with an accent on its complex meanings and manifold consequences in the unique context of the conference—Israel and its environs. This current issue explores the theme of “belonging and not belonging” in various experiences and understandings that are less connected to location and more to specific personal and therapeutic issues. The first two articles, by Maxwell S. Sucharov and Margy Sperry, respectively, aim at developing and applying theoretical conceptualizations for both authors’ autobiographical experiences. Maxwell Sucharov uses a complexity sensibility, narrative theory, and unconscious narrative to explore his historical cultural situatedness and its influence on his personal and analytic identity. He demonstrates how trauma-informed personal histories may cause the creation of rigid narratives that ignore complexity, reduce the other to debasing stereotypes, and prevent any constructive dialogue. Sucharov aspires to change and maintain an alternative historical cultural narrative, one that is more complex, humane, and deeply respectful to and responsible for the other. In his clinical vignette, he soberly reminds us that the effects of historical, cultural trauma are deeply rooted and never fully transformed. Their presence continues to lurk below, ready to surface at times of fear and vulnerability. Like Sucharov, Margy Sperry reminds us that our experience is situated in specific sociocultural and political contexts that shape our knowledge as well as our lack thereof,