The Therapist's Self Disclosure in Cross- Cultural Treatment

Authors: Ruth Lijtmaer, Roy Moodley, Shafik Sunderani

Abstract:

The argument that self-disclosure will change the psychoanalytic process into a socio-cultural niche distorting the therapeutic alliance and compromise therapeutic effectiveness is still the widely held belief amongst many psychotherapists. This paper considers the issues surrounding culture, disclosure and concealment since they remain largely untheorized and clinically problematic. The first part of the paper will critically examine the theory and practice of psychoanalysis across cultures, and explore the reasons for culturally diverse patients to conceal rather than disclose their feelings and thoughts in the transference. This is followed by a discussion on how immigrant analysts- anonymity is difficult to maintain since diverse nationalities, language and accents provide clues to the therapist-s and patient-s origins. Through personal clinical examples of one the author-s (who is an immigrant) the paper analyses the transference-countertransference paradigm and how it reflects in the analyst-s self-revelation.

Keywords: Self-disclosure, cross-cultural, transferencecountertransference, immigrant therapist.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1082507

References:

[1] Freud, S. (1912/1958). Recommendations to physicians practicing psycho-analysis. In J. Strachey (Ed. & Trans.): The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 12, pp. 109- 120). London: Hogarth Press (Original work published in 1912).
[2] Moodley, R., & Palmer, S. (2006). Race, culture and other multiple constructions: An absent presence in psychotherapy. In R. Moodley and S. Palmer (Eds.), Race, Culture and Psychotherapy (pp. 11-26). New York: NY, Routledge.
[3] Curtis, J. M. (1982). Principles and techniques of non-disclosure by the therapist during psychotherapy. Psychological Reports, 51, 907-914.
[4] Watkins, C. E. (1990). The effect of counselor self-disclosure: A research review. The Counseling Psychologist, 18, 477-500.
[5] Goldstein, E. (1994). Self-disclosure in treatment: What therapists do and don-t talk about. Clinical Social Work Journal, 22, 417-433.
[6] Edwards, C. E. & Murdock, N. L. Charcteristics of therapist selfdisclosure in the counseling process. Journal of Counseling & Development, 72, 384-389.
[7] Constantine, M., & Kwan, K. (2003). Cross-cultural considerations of therapist self- disclosure. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 59, 581-588.
[8] Helms, J. & Cook,D. (1999).Using race and culture in counseling and psychotherapy: Theory and process. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
[9] Sue, D. & Sue, D. (2003). Counseling the culturally diverse: Theory and practice (4th Ed.). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
[10] Leary, K. (1997). Race, self-disclosure, and "forbidden talk": Race and ethnicity in contemporary clinical practice. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 66:163-189.
[11] Holmes,D.(1992). Race and transference in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 73: 187-219. Holmes, D. E. (2006). Racial transference reactions in psychoanalytic treatment: An update. In Roy Moodley and Stephen Palmer (Eds.) Race, Culture, and Psychotherapy. (pp. 61-73).
[12] Altman (2000). Black and White Thinking: A Psychoanalyst reconsiders race. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 10: 589-605.
[13] Cofresi, N. (2002). The influence of Marianismo on psychoanalytic work with Latinas:Transference and countertransference implications. The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 57: 435-451.
[14] Dana, R. (1993). Multicultural Assessment Perspectives for Professional Psychology. A Longwood Professional Book. Allyn & Bacon, Boston, MA.
[15] Lijtmaer, R. (2001) Countertransference and ethnicity: The analyst-s psychic change. Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, 29:73-84.
[16] Perez-Foster (1996). What is a multicultural perspective in psychoanalysis? In: Reaching Across Boundaries of Culture and Class: Widening the Scope of Psychotherapy (pp.3-20). Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.
[17] Atkinson, D. R. (1983). Ethnic similarity in counseling psychology: A review of research. Counseling Psychologist, 11: 79-92. Atkinson, D. R. (1985). A meta-review of research on cross-cultural counseling and psychotherapy. Joural of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 13: 138-154.
[18] Thompson, C., Worthington, R., & Atkinson, D. (1994). Counselor content orientation, counselor race, and Black women-s cultural mistrust and self-disclosures. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 41: 155-161.
[19] Bonovitz, C. (2006) Locating culture in the psychic field: Transference and countertransference as cultural products. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 41: 55-76.
[20] Greenberg, J. (1995). Self-disclosure: Is it psychoanalytic? Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 31: 193-205.
[21] Meissner, W.W. (2002). The problem of self-disclosure in psychoanalysis. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 50: 827-867.
[22] Renik, O. (1995). The ideal of the anonymous analyst and the problem of self-disclosure. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 3: 466-495.
[23] Moodley, R. (2007). (Re)placing multiculturalism in counselling and psychotherapy British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 35: 1-22
[24] Chamorro, R. (2003). From the other side: Countertransference in Spanish-speaking dyads. Journal for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society, 8: 84-87.
[25] Akhtar, S. (2006). Technical challenges faced by the immigrant analyst. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 75: 21-44.
[26] Lijtmaer, R. (2006 a) Black, White, Hispanic and both: Issues in Biracial Identity and its effects in the transference-countertransference. Chapter10. In: Moodley, R. and Palmer, S. (Eds.) Race, Culture and Psychotherapy: Critical Perspectives in Multicultural Practice. London: Brunner-Routledge. Lijtmaer, R. (2006 b) Paper: "The immigrant analyst-s bilingual/bicultural self" Presented at the International Federation for Psychoanalytic Education, Queretaro, Mexico, 2-20-06
[27] Tang, N. (1992). Some implications of Chinese philosophy and childrearing practices. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 47: 371-389
[28] Wu, J. (1994). On therapy with Asian patients. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 30: 152-168.
[29] Gorkin, M. (1996). Countertransference in cross-cultural psychotherapy. In: Reaching Across Boundaries of Culture and Class: Widening the Scope of Psychotherapy (pp.159-178). Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.
[30] Grey, A. (2001), Uncultured psychoanalysis: On the hazards of ethnotransferece. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 37: 683-688.
[31] Javier, R. & Rendon, M. (1995). The Ethnic Unconscious and Its Role in Transference, Coutertransferece and Resistance. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 12: 513-520.
[32] Hammer, F. (2006). Racism as a transference state: Episodes of racial hostility in the psychoanalytic context. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 75: 197-214.
[33] Leary, K. (2000). Racial enactments in dynamic treatment. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 10: 639-653.
[34] Roland, A. (1995).Value issues involving Western psychoanalysts with Asian patients. Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis & Dynamic Psychiatry. 23: 283-292.
[35] Smith, B. & Tang, N. (2006). Different differences: Revelation and disclosure of social identity in the psychoanalytic situation. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 75: 295-321.
[36] Seeley, K. (2005). The listening cure: Listening for culture in intercultural psychological treatments. The Psychoanalytic Review, 92: 431-452.
[37] Gutheil, T. G., & Gabbard, G. O. (1993). The concept of boundaries in clinical practice: Theoretical and risk-management dimensions. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 150: 188-196.
[38] Kaslow, F., Cooper, B. & Linsenberg, M. (1979). Family therapist authenticity as a key factor in outcome. International Journal of Family Therapy, 1: 194-199.
[39] Jourard, S. (1971). Self-disclosure: An experimental analysis of the transparent self. Oxford, England: John Wiley.
[40] Geller, J. (2003). Self-disclosure in psychoanalytic-existential therapy Journal of Clinical Psychology, 5: 541-554.
[41] Davis, J. (2002) Countertransference Temptation and the Use of Self- Disclosure by Psychotherapists in Training. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 19: 435- 454.
[42] Miletic, M. J. (1998). Re-thinking self-disclosure: An example of the clinical utility of the analyst-s self-disclosing activities. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 18: 580-600.
[43] Gediman, H. (2006). Facilitating analysis with implicit and explicit selfdisclosures. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 16: 241-262.
[44] Shill, M. A. (2004). Analytic, neutrality, anonymity, abstinence, and elective self- disclosure. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 52: 151-187.