The increasing acceptance of psycho-analysis by the public and the gradual emancipation of minority groups has produced new problems for psycho-analysis in the United States. There is now a greater diversity, both of race and religion, among patients and the analytic trainee population. The respective subcultural groups to which patient and analyst belong can be regarded as constituting a special dynamic factor in the analytic situation with special reference to counter-transference.

Most of the paper is concerned with the problems which arise when Negro patients are taken into analysis. Whereas the analyst must avoid denial on his part as well as the patients', he must not overemphasize the role of racial conflicts in the genesis of the illness at the expense of basic unconscious difficulties.

More transcultural analyses and greater cultural diversity among analytic trainees will promote greater interest in the cultural aspects of personality functioning.