Revitalizing Communication Between Split Identities and Psychotic Processes in a South-Asian Treatment Dyad

Abstract

A unique interchange occurs when psychotherapy is conducted in a language that represents early attachment experiences. The treatment narrative of a South Asian woman diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia is embedded within the framework of intersectionality and presented from the perspective of a bilingual clinician of South Asian descent. Different dimensions of self and intersecting social identity processes emerged through transference, countertransference, impasses and enactments occurring in the relationship. These dimensions are contextualized in the conceptual scaffolding of feminist, multicultural, psychodynamic, and family systems perspectives. Ethical issues in culturally responsive treatment with South Asian women with severe mental illness are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• serious mental illness
• schizophrenia
• psychotherapy
• intersectionality
• postmodernism