Mother and other tongues

Mother and Other Tongues provides an overview of some of the issues relating to language usage in psychotherapy and the relationships between ‘mother’ and ‘mother tongue’ and early language development. Reflecting on her own experience as a bilingual psychotherapist, Putzu-Williams gives thought to how two languages may be internally represented in the bilingual individual and considers some aspects of the relationship between language, culture, and sense of identity. The usage of more than one language in psychotherapy raises many interesting theoretical and technical questions. The phenomenon of emotional detachment associated with speaking a second language and the exploration of the advantages and disadvantages and meaning of using more than one language in therapy are discussed. Putzu-Williams draws from her personal and professional experience, including her role as a ‘foreign’ psychologist and psychodynamic counsellor, who undertook psychotherapy in a newly acquired language. The case vignette she includes of working with a secondary school student in two languages – the mother tongue, and the newly acquired second language – illustrates how her experience informs her thinking about clients with more than one language. Putzu-Williams concludes that sharing the same languages in therapy is not a guarantee of a successful outcome. Although the emphasis is on the therapeutic relationship itself, when the psychotherapist matches the client’s languages, incorporating and using them, it appears to add a useful dimension and richness to the psychotherapeutic intervention.