ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the problem of transferring psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy to a different culture and presents some findings about the different constructs of the self in East and West. It tries to examine the ideas in relation to basic psychoanalytic concepts such as neutrality and abstinence, therapeutic splitting, empathy, and transference. The chapter sheds light on some basic psychoanalytical assumptions from a transcultural point of view. It focuses on the following topics: the frame of therapy, neutrality, and abstinence; introspection, empathy, and transference; and cultural specific defence constellations. The cornerstones of the theory of psychoanalytic technique are: a reliable setting with a stable framework, a neutral attitude towards the patient, which implies that the therapist refrains from fulfilling the patient’s immediate needs or wishes. Psychotherapy is historically quite a recent achievement in China, and the author belongs to the first generation of European teachers in this field.
