The Implications of Family Expectations, Historical Trauma, and Prejudice in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy with Naturalized and First-Generation Chinese Americans

Abstract

Recently, a number of people of Chinese descent (first-generation Americans and recent immigrants) have contacted me for psychotherapy. Many complain that they do not know who they are or that they are confused about their professional and personal goals. My attempt to understand their complaints has led me in two directions, each of which is briefly described in this article. First, I have had to learn something about the trauma experienced by some of their parents during the Cultural Revolution and the effects it had on them. For the sake of contrast, I briefly compare this experience with the experience of children of European Holocaust survivors. Second, I have had to learn something about self-development in Asian families as observed, above all, by Alan Roland (1989, 1996, 2005). In an attempt to demonstrate how the interaction of these two factors can result in the confusion my Chinese-descended patients report, I describe a complex case. The article concludes with some comments on my countertransferential feelings and technique.