Body as Estuary: Mixed Being, Being Mixed

This work utilizes the ecological system of an estuary to describe the ever-entwining experience of being of mixed identity. The framing considers race, gender, sexuality, religion, disability, ethnicity, and other subjugated identity positions, as moving and interrelating elements contributing to the internal psychic life of the subject. Psychoanalytic, ecological, philosophical, and clinical work are used to illustrate other senses of plurality for multiple identity positions that intermingle, tangle, ebb, and flow. Estuaries are typically composed of different types of bodies of water that converge to create something other in their coming together. This paper weaves queer and mestiza theory into the discourse of psychoanalysis, as both of these theoretical frames offer a multiplicity of being. Mixed-ness has often been narrativized as having to do with inherent inner conflict that is constantly worked through. This paper seeks to add a framework of stasis, without ignoring the chasms that happen within the inner world of the mixed person.