Hamity, Ayelen; (2025) Migrating Analysts, Analysing Migration Tracing Signifiers of People, Places, and Movement. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This thesis disrupts conventional understandings of the 'migrant' by examining the production of subjectivities of psychoanalysts who migrated from Argentina to England. Situated within the transdisciplinary field of psychosocial studies, it integrates psychoanalysis, postcolonial theory, and critical migration literature to offer novel perspectives on migration and subjectivity. While traditional migration studies often depict migrants as either rational actors or passive reactors to external forces, psychoanalytic literature offers interpretations on the effects of migration on people through concepts such as mourning and literature on self-states. However, critical scholars have called for rethinking these frameworks, critiquing reductive models that treat migrants as anomalies and fail to capture the complexity of this variegated process. This research reconceptualises migration by exploring the construction of subjectivity as a dynamic process shaped by cultural, historical, and symbolic dimensions. Employing a theoretically grounded yet underutilised Lacanian framework within migration studies, the thesis adopts a methodology that combines the Biographic Narrative Interpretive Method (BNIM), free-association interviews, and the tracing of recurring signifiers. Through the development of an innovative method of analysis, key themes central to migration – such as cultural identity, transgenerational trauma, language, belonging, and the figure of the migrant mother – are explored without presuming fixed meanings. Migration is framed both as a lived experience and as a symbolic space where subjectivities are negotiated, transcending the binaries that often dominate migration discourse (e.g., here/there, us/them, then/now). This thesis contributes to psychoanalysis, migration studies, and psychosocial research by advancing methodologies for studying migration and offering a conceptual framework that challenges static representations of migrants. It opens space for a distinctive understanding of how subjectivity is negotiated across national borders, enriching theoretical and methodological approaches across disciplines.

Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Qualification:	Ph.D
Title:	Migrating Analysts, Analysing Migration Tracing Signifiers of People, Places, and Movement
Language:	English
UCL classification:	UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment
URI:	https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10205362

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