ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses intimacy within couples that don’t share similar ethnicity, race, culture, class or religion (multicultural, interracial and interfaith couples). The author explores dynamic issues pertaining to couples that have these differences and describes common factors observed in their pursuit of psychic intimacy. Keeping in mind psychoanalytic, systems, relational and attachment perspectives, the author outlines three cases representing the difficulties that can crop up, and suggests how a couples therapist can enhance intimacy when couple conflicts stem from feelings of otherness, loss, loneliness, guilt and societal oppression. The unconscious dynamics around otherness and outsiderness are seen as core projective sources of conflict.
