ABSTRACT

In order to gain a better understanding of the dialectical interaction of inner and outer life worlds surrounding cross-cultural therapies, this chapter compares certain cultural concepts prevalent in the Iranian context with some of the emerging therapeutic working alliances and, by extension, the transference reactions of these therapies. In a cross-cultural setting the therapeutic alliance has to be very carefully constructed as a collaborative venture over an extended period of time in order to avoid unnecessary infringing on the norms of the clients' major group affiliations. The psychotherapist, the interpreter and the patient have to deal, not only with the mutual impact of ordinary, although cross-culturally variable contexts, but with their further transformation through the establishment of a therapeutically separate space. The psychodynamic approach of B. Killingmo clearly deviates from the kind of medically oriented model he criticises; in many respects it resembles a humanistic research model, but for its added emphasis on an applied perspective.