Close encounters: Exclusion and marginalization as an intersubjective experience

Abstract

The following paper will review current writings in intersubjective literature in order to examine how the issues of race and ethnicity color the therapeutic encounter in relation to paradigms of power and authority, transference, and countertransference and the “ethnic third.” It will then use two case vignettes to illustrate that therapists and clients coming from different cultural and ethnic groups can find ways to bridge their differences around race and culture through mutual experiences of exclusion and marginalization. The vignettes will illustrate some of the intersubjective interplays that are possible through the use of cultural rituals and symbols, both in order to form an empathie connection and in order to examine how race and culture shape the therapeutic relationship.