| The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate how the process of letting go unfolds over time using the two transitional periods of parenthood and immigration. Specifically, this study aimed to explore how individuals conceptualize the various personal changes they encountered during the process of immigration and also when confronted with their children's increasing separation and independence. The letting go process incorporates both the mourning for an old object and the integration of a new object in the system of ego functioning. The term object includes human and non-human environments, as well as constellations of roles that are characteristic for the individual.; The psychobiographical method was employed when interviewing ten participants for this study, all of whom belonged to a non-clinical population of Eastern-European immigrants and were parents of child(ren) between latency age and the early adulthood years. Each interview has been analyzed in depth for themes related to transitional experiences.; The main findings of this study lie in the area of the role of self-concept, as a constellation of beliefs about one's self, plays in the process of letting go of an object. It appeared that only when the change of some important aspects of the self-concept has been registered on a conscious level, can the letting go process actually occur. An individual style of letting go was evident in all but two participants of this research. This finding that has important clinical implications for therapeutic practice for immigrant, as well as non-immigrant, populations, because it allows a therapist to conceptualize the specific difficulties of a patient, who is feeling stuck in certain relationships, or who exhibits counter phobic abrupt separation from an object, as difficulties in separation from an object per se, thus creating a short-cut to the core of the issue. |
