The relation with the other and human identity. A psychiatrist’s considerations

Abstract

From a psychiatric point of view, the phenomenon of immigration always implicates, both for those who immigrate and for the native population, the impact with another unknown human being. This article deals with a series of psychic dynamics that disturb the relationship with this “other unknown” which range from the creation of a scapegoat to a delirious perception to an abstract idealization. In order to uphold an evolutionary relationship with others it is worth reconsidering the concept of the equality that exists among all human beings ratified by the Universal Declaration of human rights of 1948. Only when the human identity that is common to all people is no longer identified with “reason and conscience” and with the birth of a genetically determined body, does the possibility exist for a valid relationship with the other who is “an equal and yet different”.