What is Cultural Competence From a Psychoanalytic Perspective?

This webinar explores psychoanalytic understandings of sociocultural context in psychotherapy and describes a framework with a systematic inclusion of cultural competence as a core emphasis of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. A historical overview of both psychoanalytic neglect and contributions to understandings of sociocultural context, and specific contemporary psychoanalytic approaches to culturally informed practice, such as the recognition of social oppression and the complexity of cultural identifications, are discussed. A case illustration and discussion serves to translate culturally informed psychoanalytic theory to practice.

• Recognize how psychoanalytic theory informs and deepens an understanding of sociocultural context in psychotherapy.
• Identify how experiences of privilege and oppression contribute to complex and sometimes contradictory cultural identifications, and challenging dynamics within the therapeutic relationship.

Usha Tummala-Narra, PhD