On the concept of vulnerability, identity and nostalgia affecting the immigrational experience

Τhis paper focuses on the vicissitudes affecting the immigrational experience of Greeks in the United States. It is based on observations and insights emanating from psychotherapeutic work with Greek immigrants at the Transcultural Center of Human Relations in Chicago. These immigrants presented with specific symptomatologies including anxiety, depression, psychophysiologic manifestations and gross stress reactions sometimes culminating in transient psychotic episodes necessitating brief psychiatric hospitalization. This study proposes to elucidate the dynamic factors leading to specific psychopathologies observed including the feeling of increased vulnerability and helplessness felt by the immigrant in the new cultural environment in the host country along with feelings if alienation, the shattering of the sense of identity and the ensuing nostalgia motivating the quest to return to the homeland. The study also describes the treatment approaches including the psychotherapeutic interactions required to bring about significant operational changes to provide symptomatologic relief and stabilization towards an improved adaptation to the current life's circumstances. The presented three ongoing cases in point dramatically portray the intensity and complexity of the actual experiences of these immigrants and their response to the applicable therapeutic modalities.