Foreignness and Psychic Vulnerability:
Some Psychoanalytic Contributions
Keywords:
Foreignness, Language, Exchange programs, PsychoanalysisAbstract
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the contributions that a psychoanalytic perspective might bring to
understand the condition of foreignness. To achieve this we interviewed a group of students linked to the higher education
programs from countries whose official language is Portuguese. The analysis revealed that foreignness can be experienced by
the subject as a conflict inherent to its nature: the helplessness facing everything that is unfamiliar may be reinforced in case of
the contradiction of the “same” language spoken. The subjects referred to certain conditions and experiences of foreignness that
may hinder the acceptance and identification with the new culture: the reasons for the choice of Brazil, the arrival, integration,
school partnership, affective and sexual relationships, the perception of Brazilians and the difficulties encountered. From this
emerges a vulnerability of the psychic sphere that reveals the deconstructive potential realized only when it occurs.
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