Transference and countertransference implications of psychotherapy conducted in a foreign language.
Psychotherapy possesses distinct characteristics when it is conducted in the patient's native language if this language is not also the therapist's mother tongue, a fairly common situation with immigrant patients. The choice of a native therapist, who speaks the foreign patient's mother tongue but lacks perfect command of that language, involves some specific implications, including conflicts around issues of control, regression, and separation-individuation. The author presents several clinical vignettes to demonstrate these conflicts as they are manifested in the therapeutic encounter, especially in various transferential and countertransferential phenomena. He suggests that the therapist-patient relationship in such cases has significant positive therapeutic implications that can facilitate rather than complicate treatment.
Kitron
D G
DG
Child and Adolescent Unit, Ichilov Medical Center, Tel-Aviv, Israel.
D000328:Adult; D003379:Countertransference; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy; D011613:Psychotherapy; D012649:Self Concept; D014167:Transference, Psychology; D014705:Verbal Behavior