Clinician's Subjective Experience in the Cross-Cultural Psychiatric Encounter

The clinical encounter is still at the core of the psychiatric evaluation. Since the diagnostic process remains basically clinical in nature, several authors have addressed the complexity of the clinical reasoning process and highlighted the role played by intersubjective phenomena and clinician's feelings. Some recent studies have supported the view of a significant link between the clinician's subjective experience during the assessment and the diagnosis made. In a globalized world, this issue requires a careful reflection, since cultural differences may affect the intersubjective atmosphere of the encounter, which may indirectly influence the clinician's thinking.

We used a previously validated instrument, named Assessment of Clinician's Subjective Experience (ACSE), to compare the clinician's subjective experience during the evaluation of Italian patients with the subjective experience of the same clinician during the assessment of foreign patients. The 2 patient groups (n = 42 each) were individually matched for known potential confounders (age, sex, categorical diagnosis, and clinical severity).

We found no significant differences in mean scores on all ACSE dimensions (tension, difficulty in attune-ment, engagement, disconfirmation, and impotence), which suggests that cultural diversity did not substantially affect the clinician's subjective experience. However, the lack of information about the native country and linguistic proficiency of about a quarter of foreign patients may have limited the possibility to detect subtle or specific differences, especially with regard to the clinician's empathic attunement.

Although further investigation is needed, our preliminary findings may have significant implications for the reflection upon the clinician's empathic experience as well as pragmatic consequences for the act of psychiatric diagnosis in the cross-cultural encounter.