From the Other Side: Countertransference in Spanish-Speaking Dyads

In her work on psychoanalysis with bilingual patients, Perez-Foster draws attention to the process of doing therapy in both English and Spanish. She describes patients' access to early object-relations and powerful shifts in the transference as a result of language choice, specifically the greater possibility for transference enactments which might not otherwise occur or take longer in the secondary language. While she states that both patient and analyst are changed by this particular medium—i.e., use of the primary language—more focus is placed on the patient and less is mentioned about the subjective or countertransferential experience of the analyst.

This paper will focus on the tensions and choices presented to the therapist as a result of the Spanish-speaking therapeutic coupling. Specifically, issues regarding the debate on the therapist's self-disclosure, both inherent and at other times purposeful, will be illustrated. Thereafter, I will share the personal dimensions of doing this work and its interface with cultural dilemmas. Finally, the paper concludes with a clinical example that highlights the fluidity of word meanings and potential for and use of countertransferential enactments.

Psychodynamic psychotherapy, as practiced by native Spanish-speakers in the United States, provides a particular platform for treatment. Mainstream US culture homogenizes Spanish-speaking peoples into one ethnic group: “Latinos.” Yet such a group involves dozens of different countries, each with particular socio-political histories and unique versions of the Spanish language. In the consultation room, distinct nationalities, boundaries and regions are communicated, as dialects, accents and intonations can “give away”—or, at least, provide clues—to the therapist's and patient's origins. Other stimuli, such as the treater's race and gender are also immediately available without so much as a verbal exchange, as are approximat