Abstract

BORGES, Lucienne Martins  and  POCREAU, Jean-Bernard. Acknowledging difference: the challenge of ethno-psychiatry. Psicol. rev. (Belo Horizonte) [online]. 2009, vol.15, n.1, pp. 232-245. ISSN 1677-1168.

Acknowledging the Other’s difference is the basis of ethno-psychiatry, which is necessarily multiple and bears subtleties and variations. Based on their practice at the Service d’aide psychologique spécialisée aux immigrants et réfugiés - SAPSIR, Quebec/Canada, the authors propose another perspective for this discipline, taking into account the individual’s cultural and psychological features, the various dimensions of identity, as well as existential and humanistic universals such as the self’s need for meaning, continuity and coherence. The proposed clinical approach, according to the principles of ethno-psychiatry, is structured around three axes: working on links, working on different dimensions of identity, and working on the coherence and meaning of experienced situations. This approach allows following and facilitating essential elaborations involved in the psychological care to refugees and individuals exposed to extreme situations such as torture.

Keywords : ethno-psychiatry; intercultural psychotherapy; immigration.

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