Where Does I Stand ? Reflections on Home and Identity Ensnared in a Cultural Narrative.

In this talk Joanna de Waal explores and critiques an unconscious cultural narrative, or cultural complex, concerned with place and identity. She names two concepts, Home and Identity: Home being a hospitable and accommodating space with Identity denoting the one who inhabits the space. In the narrative these two are categorized as belonging to the ‘Feminine’ and the ‘Masculine’ respectively, resting on these as implicitly universal givens. Questioning the validity of this universality and acknowledging the slippery nature of her focus Joanna invites us to consider how our attitudes, no matter how radical they may appear, may be unwittingly still trapped in an old problem. Drawing from myths, poetry, and fairy tales, plus Jungian, Psychoanalytic and feminist perspectives, Joanna takes a fresh look at notions of space and identity and thus hopes to open a way through and beyond the limits of a still largely heteronormative, binary, and patriarchally determined view of the world. Clinical examples are given to illustrate how acknowledgment and awareness of this narrative might free the therapist to think more broadly around issues pertaining to space and identity.