Working with Afghan Students: Countertransference and Dissociated Processes of an Analyst in Training

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper was developed as part of a panel for the International Psychoanalytic Association’s (IPA) 53rd Congress in July 2023. In this paper I discuss treatment with students from the American University of Afghanistan as part of a team at New York University’s Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. The paper reviews the themes that I identified while working with three students from the university. The themes include issues of identity and power, role confusion, and finally the question “am I doing a good thing?” Simultaneously, I discuss my own countertransferential process and disavowed material based on my own cultural background.