Editorial

Cultural psychiatry has come of age by losing its predominantly theoretical, academic status and moving into the mainstream of clinical work. Psychoanalysis, psychiatry and many of the psychotherapies have come to recognize the therapeutic significance of cultural factors. The American Academy of Psychoanalysis has taken cognizance of the growing role of cultural considerations in the field by having held two scientific meetings on this particular topic during the last six years.

A distinct change has taken place even during this short span of time. At the first meeting of this kind in Kingston, Jamaica , the theme, “Bridging Ethnic Boundaries, Transcultural Psychiatry,” did not emphasize clinical aspects. By contrast, the recent meeting in Puerto Rico (December 1980) went to the heart of the issue with the title, “Psychoanalysis and Psychiatry in Transcultural Perspective.” Numerous papers, workshops and discussions at the recent meeting in San Juan addressed themselves largely to a clarification of sociocultural components in the application of psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic procedures. Thus a novel point of view was introduced when the entire field of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy was approached from a transcultural perspective.

Until recently transcultural psychiatry was predominantly viewed as a field of research. Many of the early studies were seriously hampered by poor methodology, by broad generalizations based on sampling without specifications of particulars, absence of pilot studies, interdisciplinary miscommunications and a host of artifacts leading to inaccurate findings. In this connection it is becoming increasingly clear that culture, akin to oxygen, is an ever-present element of human existence. Social, political, economic, biological, psychological and cultural components form a dynamic unit which constitutes an ever-present transactional cluster. Today, practitioners in the variegated field of psychoanalysis and in the psychotherapies are i