Transference and countertransference implications of psychotherapy conducted in a foreign language

Psychotherapy possesses distinct characteristics when it is conducted in the patient's native language if this language is not also the therapist's mother tongue, a fairly common situation with immigrant patients. The choice of a native therapist, who speaks the foreign patient's mother tongue but lacks perfect command of that language, involves some specific implications, including conflicts around issues of control, regression, and separation-individuation. The author presents several clinical vignettes to demonstrate these conflicts as they are manifested in the therapeutic encounter, especially in various transferential and countertransferential phenomena. He suggests that the therapist-patient relationship in such cases has significant positive therapeutic implications that can facilitate rather than complicate treatment.