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Separation and individuation in an African society: the developmental tasks of the Gusii married woman.

In this paper we will apply a psychoanalytically informed perspective to understand psychosocial adaptation and self-development in a group of women living in a standard African culture, the Gusii of southwestern Kenya. Specifically, we will draw upon the concept of separation-individuation to understand psychological development among married Gusii women (abasubaati, sing. omosubaati). We will briefly describe the institutional context of Gusii life, the psychological tasks of a Gusii woman's adult life course, and the progress of three particular women, each at a different stage in her childbearing career. The predominant theme running through our data concerns the process by which all Gusii women leave, forever, their natal homes and attempt to establish themselves in what they may initially perceive as a foreign and often inhospitable place. The process of giving up primary attachments and forming new ones certainly is not unique to Gusii women. The extremeness of their situation, however, provides an opportunity to explore a set of particular adaptations to what may well be a universal task in human development, the process of separation-individuation.