ABSTRACT
The main aim of this chapter is to doubt the view that Western psychotherapy (in which psychoanalysis is integral) only applies within Western cultures. It is not denied that there may be problems that can be traced to cultural conditions, but it is maintained that none of the supposed problems of diagnosis, the training of therapists across cultures, or the processes of psychotherapy differ fundamentally from the problems within a culture. The chapter examines the strengths and weakness of cultural relativism. The theory of cultural relativism is based on the obvious cultural diversity of humanity. It originated in the early ethnographic preoccupation with recording and classifying differing cultural skills, customs, beliefs, technologies, and forms of economic, social, political, and religious organizations. In its strongest form, cultural relativism implies that cultures and societies can only be understood and evaluated in terms of their own values.
