The Other Language: Psychoanalytic Thoughts on the Loss of the “Mother Tongue”

The native language has a structuring, containing function, but it is also infused with primary fantasies, including incestuous ones – representing the libidinal tie to the mother. Mother tongue can become more libidinally invested when living in a foreign country with a different language. Losing the mother tongue and investing in another language, that of exile, may involve an unconscious fear or desire to break this maternal tie. For migrants, acquiring the language of the host country often means acquiring a language devoid of affect, or loaded with aggression and violence, since languages carry transgenerational traumas and memories. In my work with migrants in Istanbul, I found that most refugees preferred to work with me as I was the only one who spoke Arabic at the time. They often told me that my voice reminded them of their mothers and motherland. I had, in some way, become the “translator” and the link to the lost object, the motherland (“umma” in Arabic, derives from “umm” which is mother in English). This made me reflect on the trauma of losing the mother tongue in exile and the importance and metapsychology of voice in our analytical context, as voice and words are fundamental tools in our profession.