Different countries display varying degrees of receptivity toward psychoanalysis. In many cases the desire to be analyzed can be achieved only beyond the borders of one's own country; this often leads to a situation in which the analysis is conducted in a language other than one's mother tongue. The effect of geographical factors is indisputable, but more personal, even deeply hidden factors may also be involved. During an analytic encounter that immediately introduces a note of “foreignness,” the question is: What does this note of foreignness indicate? The mother tongue is ideal for constructing a bridge across the relationship instituted by thought between representations of things and representations of words. While the defensive aspects of distancing from use of the mother tongue have been noted, its etiology and consequences have not been adequately studied.

Analysis in a foreign language introduces the otherness of the speaker on the level of language as well as on other levels, such as ethnic, cultural, and sexual. For the