A psychiatrist in cultural transition: personal and professional dilemmas.
This article describes the author's personal and professional dilemmas, encountered as a psychiatrist in the process of migration from Central Europe to New Zealand. The dilemmas include: (i) personal experiences in the stages of migration, (ii) struggles within the author's own multi-ethnic community, (iii) biculturalism, (iv) the unexpected seriousness of psychopathology, and (v) the tendency for overidentification. Professionals in a cultural transition should be aware that personal and professional challenges are interconnected. The concepts of loyalty, relational ethics and existential humanism were valuable in the resolution of these dilemmas.
Goldner-Vukov
Mila
M
University of Auckland, New Zealand. milav@adhb.govt.nz
D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D003469:Culture; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D009520:New Zealand; D010819:Physician's Role; D011570:Psychiatry; D015022:Yugoslavia / Q000208:ethnology