Forced migration, adolescence, and identity formation

Adolescence is a complex biopsychosocial phenomenon. All the inner-subjective changes in adolescents take place within the context of a specific social environment, which offers the necessary ideological setting that adolescents must confront in the course of their identity formation. Forced migration creates conditions under which the adolescent Ego may be traumatized more easily, resulting in the development of defensive mechanisms, which may interfere with the natural process of identity formation. The aim of this paper is to investigate how a traumatic situation such as forced migration may affect the mechanisms of identity formation in adolescence. For this purpose, clinical material, consisting of two cases of psychoanalytical psychotherapy of adolescents who were forced to immigrate to Greece, is presented and discussed in a psychoanalytical theoretical framework, along with the historical-sociological background.Dimitris C. Anagnostopoulos, M.D., is a child psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Unit, Community Mental Health Center, Psychiatric Department, Medical School, University of Athens, Athens, Greece.Maria Vlassopoulos, Ph.D., is at the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Unit, Community Mental Health Center, Psychiatric Department, Medical School, University of Athens, Athens, Greece.Helen Lazaratou, M.D., is at the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Unit, Community Mental Health Center, Psychiatric Department, Medical School, University of Athens, Athens, Greece.