Topic: Afraid of Things That Are in Flight: Birds, and Sometimes Families

Description: How does immigration affect the mental health of children whose parents have moved to another country? A desire to offer their children better lives is a main motivating factor for many immigrant parents. Children can come to symbolize parents’ wishes for this promising future, a bit like stars in the night sky shining out of the darkness. Yet sometimes parents bring with them remnants of their past that linger within a family as secrets and untold stories, such as of traumatic events before or during their migration. Intergenerational transmission of traumatic incidents can be a characteristic of immigrant children’s experiences when parents have fled their home countries because of persecution and discrimination. A case example of a nine-year-old girl will highlight some of the complex dynamics of unconscious repetitions that can overwhelm a developing psyche with fears and fragmentation. Attendees will be encouraged to engage in discussion about their perspectives on the psychological effects of immigration.

The talk is targeted to psychoanalytic psychotherapists. The specific goal is to have the audience members learn about the effect of immigration on children. The meeting will consist of a lecture including a clinical presentation followed by a period of discussion and questions. The presenter, Robert Tyminski, is an adult-and-child analyst and member of the C. G. Jung Institute of San Franciso.  He has written a book on the psychological effects of immigrating.

ROBERT TYMINSKI is an adult-and-child-analyst member of the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco and a past president.  He teaches in the Institute’s analytic training program. He is the author of Male Alienation at the Crossroads of Identity, Culture, and Cyberspace (Routledge, 2018), The Psychology of Theft and Loss: Stolen and Fleeced (Routledge, 2014), and a novel Crooked Lines (2023). He is a 2016 winner of the Michael Fordham Prize from the Journal of Analytical Psychology. His book, The Psychological Effects of Immigrating: A Depth Psychology Perspective on Relocating to a New Place, came out in 2022.

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Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the presentation, attendees should be able to:

1. Describe the main psychological factors of intergenerational trauma in children of immigrants
2. Explain with two examples how narrative gaps in immigrants’ stories might happen.

The presenter, Robert Tyminski, and the organizer, James W. Anderson, have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to report.

Admission is free. Continuing Education Credits are offered exclusively to Society members in all membership categories and those intending to join.  CE Credit will also be granted to members of CCP who register with the CCP registration code.

Continuing Education

---for CME Credit:

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of American Psychoanalytic Association and Chicago Psychoanalytic Society. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this Live Activity for a maximum of 2 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE INFORMATION FOR ALL LEARNERS: None of the planners and presenters for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s)* to disclose with ineligible companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.

*Financial relationships are relevant if the educational content an individual can control is related to the business lines or products of the ineligible company.

---for all other CE credit:

This program is sponsored for Continuing Education Credits by the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis. There is no commercial support for this program, nor are there any relationships between the continuing education sponsor, presenting organization, presenter, program content, research, grants or other funding that could be construed as conflicts of interest. Participants are asked to be aware of the need for privacy and confidentiality throughout the program. If the program content becomes stressful, participants are encouraged to process these feelings during discussion periods. The Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis maintains responsibility for this program and its content. CCP is licensed by the state of Illinois to sponsor continuing education credits for Licensed Clinical Social Workers, Licensed Social Workers, Licensed Clinical Professional Counselors, Licensed Professional Counselors, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapy Counselors and Licensed Clinical Psychologists (license no. 159.000941 and 268.000020 and 168.000238 Illinois Dept. of Financial and Professional Regulation).

Professionals holding the aforementioned credentials will receive 2.0 continuing education credits for attending the entire program. To receive these credits a completed evaluation form must be turned in at the end of the presentation and licensed psychologists must first complete a brief exam on the subject matter. No continuing education credit will be given for attending part of the presentation. Refunds for CE credit after the program begins will not be honored.