ABSTRACT
Very small children do not have a firmly established mental representation of another person. Pre-adolescent children will have a realistic concept of death and its finality. Young immigrant or refugee children without the stabilized object constancy of people, pets, and things lost, also possess fantasized mental images of what was left behind. This chapter illustrates how Manuel's rather typical unconscious fantasies dealing with oedipal issues were used defensively and repeated in many actions to deny and cover up a deeper murderous unconscious fantasy related to a rejecting mother. In Manuel's case, his unconscious fantasies linked to his dislocation experience can be put into words and came to life through many of his actions. The child's adjustment to life at a new location is influenced by her own unconscious fantasies, as well as conscious ones if she is not too young, and the nature of actual external traumatic events that accompany the child's dislocation experience.
