ABSTRACT
Psychoanalysis is no stranger to ethnic hatred, having been marginalised by the anti-Semitism of the Viennese, non-Jewish establishments which influenced the medical and other scientific faculties of European universities. Its unpalatable ideas about the human condition were misperceived as a reflection of Jewish temperament as a race. The holocaust that eventually unfolded in the 'ethnic cleansing' and genocide of the Jews in Europe led many analysts, including Freud, to become displaced refugees. One way to approach the negation is to locate it within a wider framework of understanding societal and organisational defences against anxiety. One of the clinical challenges is to understand the inner world in the context of early life experiences and relationships situated in the ambience of the ethnic or cultural milieu, creating a mosaic of meanings to be understood in the clinical encounter. This chapter illustrates some situations in psychotherapy consultation.
