An American-Japanese Transcultural Psychoanalysis and the Issue of Teacher Transference

It is proposed that the "teacher transference" may be an issue deserving attention in other psychoanalytic relationships and to advance the idea that, in a transcultural analysis, the analyst is not necessarily a stranger.

Abstract

In this paper I have presented the narrative of my own didactic analysis, involving the interchange between an analysand from a Japanese background and an analyst from an American background. As I reflected on my own experience, I discovered what I have called the "teacher transference" as a significant dynamic process within this transcultural analysis. I would like to propose that this teacher transference may be an issue deserving attention in other psychoanalytic relationships and to advance the idea that, in a transcultural analysis, the analyst is not necessarily a stranger. Overall, I hope this paper will contribute to transcultural psychoanalytic theory and to a nonmonolithic understanding of the Japanese and Japanese culture.