What happens in the psyche of the person who migrates? How is the balance between what is objectively perceived and what is subjectively conceived of restored? What factors impinge on this process? Can group analysis help with the transition or lack of it? Is the significance of the therapy group different from any other patient group? These are questions arising from my own personal experiences of being a foreigner in the UK, and from the experiences of running groups with immigrants. I would like to explore these issues, and perhaps speculate, on the basis of Winnicott's ideas of a transitional object and playing and reality. In the second part of the article I will relate these ideas to group analysis.
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