Psychoanalytic Theory and Cultural Competence in Psychotherapy

Pratyusha (Usha) Tummala-Narra received her doctorate in clinical psychology at Michigan State University. She is an associate professor in the Department of Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology at Boston College; a teaching associate in psychiatry at the Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School; and in independent practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In the course of her career, Dr. Tummala-Narra has held several academic and clinical positions in Massachusetts, Michigan, and Washington, DC. Her research interests focus on the intersections of culture, race, gender, immigration, and trauma, and culturally informed psychotherapy practice. Her clinical scholarship has focused on psychoanalytic perspectives on the relationship between sociocultural context and identity and its influence on the therapeutic process.

Acknowledgments Introduction A Historical Overview and Critique of the Psychoanalytic Approach to Culture and Context Psychoanalytic Contributions to the Understanding of Diversity Cultural Competence From a Psychoanalytic Perspective Attending to Indigenous Narrative Considering the Role of Language and Affect Addressing Social Oppression and Traumatic Stress Recognizing the Complexity of Cultural Identifications Expanding Self-Examination: Cultural Context in the Life and Work of the Therapist Implications of a Culturally Informed Psychoanalytic Perspective: Some Thoughts on Future Directions References Index About the Author