Holding Together: Couples and Families as Lifelines in Times of Turmoil
Introduction
In an era marked by social upheaval, migration, political unrest, and collective trauma, couples and families emerge as vital anchors—offering containment, identity, and resilience. The COFAP (Couple and Family Psychoanalytic Program) framework highlights the profound role intimate relationships play in navigating chaos, serving as psychic safe harbors amid external storms.
This article explores how couples and families function as crucial relational systems that hold fragmented selves together, providing a foundation for healing and growth during turbulent times.
The Family as a Container for Psychic Chaos
Psychoanalytic theory emphasizes that the family often serves as the first “container” of emotional experience, holding the anxieties and conflicts of its members (Bion, 1962). When external realities become overwhelming—whether through war, migration, or social instability—family systems may fracture under pressure or mobilize to provide emotional regulation and stability.
Within COFAP, attending to unconscious dynamics between partners and family members reveals patterns of splitting, projection, and identification that either exacerbate chaos or foster cohesion.
Couples as Microcosms of Societal Turmoil
Couples uniquely embody broader social conflicts on an intimate scale. The negotiation of power, dependency, and vulnerability within relationships reflects the tensions present in the wider world. When couples create spaces for mutual recognition and emotional attunement, they become models of containment and repair.
Conversely, unresolved trauma and external stressors may deepen conflicts, leading to retraumatization or emotional withdrawal.
Migration, Displacement, and Family Dynamics
Migration frequently disrupts established family roles and attachments, challenging identities and survival strategies. COFAP’s focus on these processes reveals how families adapt—or struggle to adapt—to new cultural contexts, language barriers, and loss.
Understanding the intergenerational transmission of trauma within families allows clinicians to support the repair of ruptured attachments and foster resilience.
The Analytic Space as a Relational Container
COFAP underscores the analytic space as a “third space” that holds anxiety and chaos without collapse. This containing environment supports couples and families in reflecting on unconscious conflicts, gaining insight, and transforming destructive patterns.
Within this space, fragmented identities can be reintegrated and relational bonds strengthened.
Conclusion: Couples and Families as Beacons of Hope
In chaotic times, couples and families transcend social units to become dynamic, living systems capable of holding, healing, and creating meaning. The COFAP approach invites us to recognize and nurture these bonds as essential for individual and collective survival.
As anchors amid turbulence, couples and families illuminate a path toward connection, understanding, and renewed possibility.
References
Bion, W.R. (1962). Learning from Experience.
Boszormenyi-Nagy, I., & Spark, G.M. (1973). Invisible Loyalties: Reciprocity in Intergenerational Family Therapy.
Benjamin, J. (1998). Shadow of the Other: Intersubjectivity and Gender in Psychoanalysis.
