In “Bridging the Gap: Technical Aspects of the Analysis of an Asian Immigrant,” Andrew I. Smolar, M.D., discusses his treatment of a client who had recently moved to the United States. The client, referred to as C, was a married Korean man in his late forties who had immigrated to advance his career. The analysis was conducted in English. C presented with confusion about his professional goals in his chosen field of engineering. Over the course of therapy, more basic issues emerged and were addressed.

A key factor in the success of the therapy, Dr. Smolar believed, was his eventual decision to ask C to comment on issues arising from his cultural origins, which the patient had been avoiding. In fact, Dr. Smolar observed in retrospect that he might well have confronted C's cultural differences from him much earlier in the therapeutic relationship. The psychiatrist then recommends several technical steps for working with a narcissistic immigrant, including the analyst's