Nathan's Ethnopsychoanalytic Therapy: Characteristics, Discoveries and Challenges to Western Psychotherapy

Tobie Nathan's recent synthesis of 15 years of clinical work with migrant patients is presented and discussed. His clinical approach represents a unique attempt to integrate therapeutic techniques used in non-Western cultures and psychodynamic therapy by introducing three main parameters: (i) the patient's mother tongue; (ii) 'traditional' etiologic theories (explanatory models) specific to the patient's culture of origin; and (iii) a group setting with a multicultural group of therapists. Nathan's focus on technique makes it possible to identify important elements of the therapeutic process: the material arrangement of the therapeutic setting (illustrating the main therapeutic idea) and specific logical processes such as analogical thinking, mediation, and reversal. The main premises and therapeutic implications of this pluritheoretical approach are summarized.