Current developments in French ethnopsychoanalysis

Abstract

French ethnopsychoanalytic approaches to therapy with immigrants combine the psychoanalytical interest in subjectivity with a specific concern for cultural factors and with the role migration plays as a crucial life event. Recent approaches consider culture as profoundly hybrid and use the notions of ‘‘métissage’’ and ‘‘décentrage’’ as central concepts. This article presents extracts from a qualitative study of ethnopsychoanalytic therapies with immigrant families. The authors argue that the ethnopsychoanalytic approach helps to open new ways of considering cultural hybridity and create a third space where experiences ‘‘from the margins’’ may be verbalized.