Psychotherapy in Competition With Culture

Abstract

Psychotherapy typically addresses the intrapsychic arena in order to accomplish self-awareness and self-actualization. When dealing with clients froma collective/ authoritarian cultural background, the intrapsychic arena is secondary to the intrafamilial one. Application of psychotherapy that aims to help the collective person express her authentic feelings and uncover repressed contents confronts the collective/authoritarian culture. A case of an Arab woman living in an extreme collective/authoritarian Arab culture exemplifies the helplessness of psychotherapy. In this case, psychotherapy is confronted by three cultural barriers: familial pressure, unindividuated personality, and the client's collective values. The case ended in almost complete withdrawal from psychotherapy to a solution offered by the culture. It suggests that the psychotherapist acknowledge the limitations of psychotherapy and appreciate the role of culture in peoples' lives and to facilitate cultural solutions that are functional, even when they seemunaccept able by therapists' individualistic perspective.