[Return to the past. On the psychoanalysis of Spanish immigrant workers]

The author reports on her work with women who have returned to their native Spain after living for a lengthy period in central Europe, drawing upon a detailed case study to demonstrate that migration can make people ill if the social conditions of the host country are such that they are experienced by migrants as degrading and discriminating. Zeul points out in this connection that in the psychoanalytic literature on emigration there has been a significant neglect of social factors and the influence they have on the way people come to terms with migration psychologically. With reference notably to ideas stemming from the work of Doris Bernstein, she also pinpoints the role played by a specifically female super-ego structure originating in very early mother-daughter interaction and early body experiences which sabotages the efforts of these women to come to terms successfully with emigration and repatriation.