Couples and families’ resilience in facing sociocultural changes: “Co-maternity” and “Oedipus in law” in the Tunisian transitional context

Abstract

When a nation has experienced state violence and political exploitation, relationships in families and between couples are severely strained. Conditions permitting, a resilience process can occur. In fact, family psychoanalysis allows the discovery of different forms and modalities of resilience, which only a group is capable of. This paper explores the richness of an intersubjective psychoanalytic approach. It demonstrates its clinical application for Tunisian couples and families in a changing sociocultural revolutionary context. It identifies two transitional link configurations, designated “co-maternity” and “Oedipus-in-law”, illustrating a process of “negotiation” favorable for resilience and fluent intergenerational transmission, even if change comes with its conflicts.