TY - JOUR A1 - Gonzalez-Torres, Miguel Angel A1 - Fernandez-Rivas, Aranzazu T1 - Return to Sepharad: Is it possible to heal an ancient wound? A reflection on the construction of large-group identity T2 - International Forum of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 28 (No. 2, 2019), pp. 095-103. N2 - Spanish parliament recently issued a new law offering Spanish nationality to Sephardic Jews who so desired and could demonstrate a basic knowledge of the Spanish language and culture. This law attempted to redress a five-centuries-old injustice and was expected to unleash both criticism and praise. Surprisingly, reactions in the public or the press were minimal or absent. Reasons for this are explored through a qualitative study with focus groups, which showed ideas that can be grouped into four main categories: ignorance, justice, distrust, and fear. It is hypothesized that the predominantly silent response to the new law might be due to the fact that it touches on an extremely sensible issue: the historically fragmented Spanish identity. A position of negation is constructed, to avoid deep anxieties related to the fragile core of a collective identity built from many >others< forced to the refuge of an introspection that protects them from the conviction of not fulfiling the ideal identity status, known by all but reached by none. All those >others< have mixed their bloods with the Old Christians along the centuries, possibly transmitting a profound insecurity about their personal and collective identity that might contribute to understanding current social reactions. Y1 - 2019 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-Fromm/frontdoor/index/index/docId/35897 ER -