PSYCHOTHERAPY AND CULTURE
We will explore the relationship between psychotherapy and culture from a cross-cultural perspective. Does culture influence psychotherapy in the U.S.? How do psychotherapists deal with cultural contexts? This topic will be considered from historical, social, political, and economic perspectives. Approaches to psychotherapy in one culture are not necessarily adopted in another culture, and when forms of therapy are adopted across cultures they often undergo adaptations to fit cultural ways of being. An example of this would be a Western therapy, such as psychoanalysis, when transported to Japan, will deemphasize interpretation and allow for more positive transference than in Western forms of psychoanalysis. We will also investigate indigenous mental illnesses and psychotherapies. Examples would be ‘hikikomori’ (extreme social phobia) and Morita therapy in Japan. Also to be investigated will be whether there are particular types of psychotherapy which cross particular cultures and why. Examples would be Freudian psychoanalysis in India, Humanistic psychotherapy in China, Jungian, Rogerian and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Japan, and Lacanian psychoanalysis in Argentina.