Carol Long

In our culture, in our gender: Implications of the culture/gender interface for South African psychotherapists

Debates about the relationship between culture and gender, and the potential contradictions involved in simultaneously respecting both multicultural and feminist principles and values, have occupied an important place in theoretical discussion in the social sciences and humanities. This paper examines the relationship between gender and culture from the perspective of the psychotherapeutic encounter in a multicultural society, in this case contemporary South Africa. With the help of illustrative case material involving traumatically bereaved women who became subject to cultural ascriptions of maliciousness or murderousness, and where cultural beliefs potentially jeopardized gender rights, mental health and therapeutic recovery, the article argues that the relationship between gender and culture, viewed from a therapeutic perspective, can be seen to present complex conceptual and ethical challenges for the therapist. In addition, the structural, psychological and discursive positioning of the therapist and client in respect of warrants to speak and to accept or contest cultural constructions is recognized as implicated in particular kinds of therapeutic impasses. Both clinical and political concerns are discussed in order to illustrate the intersections between the intrapsychic and the social, as well as between the personal and the political. Two related lines of theory, that of intersectionality (derived primarily from feminist theory) and of psychoanalytic theory, are proposed and juxtaposed as a productive way of thinking about instances in which the interface between gender and culture presents particular kinds of problems in the consulting room for both clients and therapists. The necessity for a particular kind of critical self, group and cultural awareness is proposed.

Finding the HIV Positive Mother Symposium: HIV and its meanings within the mother-infant dyad

Abstract Despite the prevalence of maternal HIV infection, HIV positive mothers have only recently become a focus of psychological-scientific investigation. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, some of the key findings to emerge from this literature will be presented with reference to the key themes of disclosure, incidence of psychiatric symptoms, coping and support and parenting efficacy. The second purpose is to interrogate this research in order to “find” the HIV positive mother. This will be done by examining some of the gaps and points of irrationality in the literature to identify points at which the construction of motherhood either slips in contradictory or nonsensical ways or becomes general and vague. The emergent themes of absence, death, guilt and abnormality will be illustrated with examples from the literature.

The clinician in the university: Reflections on a South African psychoanalytically oriented doctoral programme

Translations of summary There is increasing interest, both internationally and in South Africa, in strengthening the relationship between psychoanalytic practice and research. This paper reports on a psychoanalytically oriented doctoral programme offered at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. The programme is described in relation to the broader context of the historical relationship of psychoanalysis to the university as well as to the specific context of the history of psychoanalysis in South Africa. Key challenges of the programme, specifically concerning research tensions and methodological and theoretical tolerance, are subsequently explored. The way in which these challenges manifested within a group context illustrates their potential for conflict as well as productive debate. The paper reflects on how this specific programme illuminates and extends some of the broader debates in the field of psychoanalysis.

Is three a crowd? A perspective on countertransference challenges in psychoanalytic couple psychotherapy

Two seemingly unrelated characteristics of psychoanalytic couple psychotherapy may be better understood when juxtaposed. First, countertransference in psychoanalytic couple psychotherapy holds particularly strong intensity. Second, format decisions are central to couple psychotherapy. The use of conjoint and concurrent formats, or variations thereof, has been key in the historical development of couple psychotherapy and remains an area of much debate. Some couple psychotherapists use the format of couple psychotherapy flexibly, using variations of conjoint or concurrent couple psychotherapy, while others adhere strictly to working conjointly. Decisions regarding whether to undertake concurrent or conjoint therapy are not generally linked to countertransference; this article demonstrates that reading decisions regarding format through consideration of countertransference offers a needed perspective for the therapist. Case studies published by psychoanalytic couple therapists are analysed through this prism to demonstrate that changing the format may serve to dilute countertransference. One particular manifestation of countertransference, linked to oedipal dynamics, is explored: countertransferential intensity for couple psychotherapists potentially relates to being faced with their internal parental couple and their unresolved Oedipal strivings. Possible unconscious motivations to change the format of couple psychotherapy need to be carefully considered, as format changes may mask an avoidance of bearing the countertransference.

III. Speaking for a Change: Strategies for Transgressive Praxis

Four years after South Africa’s first democratic election, the ‘new’ South Africa, with its constitutionally enshrined rejection of prejudice and discrimination, has seen many changes. Not least of these has been ground-breaking policy decisions regarding the rights of women to freedom and equality. In South Africa, women are on the agenda: of trade unions, political organizations, aspects of civil society, universities and within grass-roots structures (Basilli, 1991). Whereas in apartheid years issues of gender were necessarily subsumed by issues of race, the current political climate has opened opportunities for women’s issues to occupy a less marginal space. Despite South Africa’s status as a world leader in progressive policy regarding women’s issues, many South African women live amid stark contrasts between policy and practice. For example, although South Africa recently became one of the few countries in the world to recognize marital rape as a criminal offence, statistics show that South Africa has one of the highest rates of domestic violence and rape in the world. In 1984, it was estimated that 60 percent of marital relationships involved abuse (Shifman et al., 1998). The South African police estimate that a woman is raped every 35 seconds in South Africa and yet rape has the lowest conviction rate of all assault crimes (at 16 percent in 1993) (Shifman et al., 1998). Although policy values progressive praxis, lived experience of South African women highlights the radical disjuncture between progressive policy and oppressive practice. This contradiction was evident when President Nelson Mandela recently consoled a mother whose daughter had been murdered by assuring her that violent crimes are on the decrease in South Africa, but