Race, culture and other multiple constructions: An absent presence in psychotherapy

In ethnically different or similar dyads, the therapist needs to exercise particular caution against applying his or her personal assumptions and metapsychology about minds at large. This chapter defines the following terms, they are: Splitting, Ego Identity, Racism, and Transference-counter-transference. Splitting of the object world occurs when there is an unsatisfactory early relationship between mother and infant because the 'good mother' is not intrapsychically available. Ego identity is an enduring psychological structure that is subjectively experienced as a psychological well-being. Racism is defined 'as internalized oppression'. It is a reenactment of a trauma that will create distress if it is not healed or discharged. Transference is defined as the patient's emotional reactions to the therapist based on the patient's sense of who the therapist is culturally with respect to race, ethnicity, religion, and other factors. Biracial identity may be understood as an emergent category of identification. Most of the non-psychoanalytic papers discuss the difficulties of biracial identity development.