Discussion of “Bridging cultures in Psychoanalytic work”

Dr Rho introduces us to his patient, Yune, a physician in her early fifties and gives an account of his work with her that takes place over seven years. Interestingly, and like many referrals for treatment in countries where psychoanalytic thinking is beginning to take root, the referral is not for psychoanalysis, however, we regard it, nor is it even conceived as directly for Yune herself, but rather as a consultation to help her in understanding and parenting her daughter who suffers from so-diagnosed Attention Deficit Disorder. Following the assessment with Dr Rho, Yune requests psychotherapy for herself. I think what Dr Rho glosses here is the sensitive understanding and tact involved in initiating a move from the interpersonal parent-child focussed referral to one where the focus is on the individual’s inner world. What was it that Dr Rho was able to convey to his narcissistically vulnerable patient with impulse, identity and substance issues, which interested her in exploring her own mind and functioning?

As reported, Yune, an academically gifted child whose parents needed her to excel, appears to have suffered anxiety and loneliness since childhood. Her parents are reported as misunderstanding the role of play, enjoyment and imagination in childhood, seeming to (mis)believe that it detracts from learning and development rather than supporting it. Yune’s parents are described as using anger, physical punishment and shaming to render Yune compliant to their aspirations for obedience, discipline and constrained behaviour. I am inclined to think that not only psychological but also cultural factors influenced by Confucian values about filial piety and obedience are involved in shaping the parental attitudes to child rearing. In childhood, Yune reported that she held a phantasy that she would be rescued by a ‘hero’ – this phantasy may have contributed to enabling her to begin work with Dr Rho by generating a positive transference and hope in a psychoanalytic proces