ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how an intergenerational transmission of trauma may be engendered by the process of immigration, differentiating between the experience of those whose relocation was abrupt and unwelcome rather versus the experience of those who had longed for and idealized the “New World”. It traces the development of the process of immigration through three generations of an Italian immigrant family. The chapter discusses examples of the unfolding of this process as it is depicted in several works of American fiction. It explores the role of the extended family—in particular the role of grandparents—in development, and in particular, in the acquisition of psychological resilience. Haydee Faimberg has written about what she refers to as the “telescoping of generations” in which unarticulated narcissistic links between generations are enacted in the process of psychoanalysis. Groundbreaking work offers a new perspective on psychopathology and provides psychoanalysts with new tools for understanding therapeutic action.
