Episode 91: Cultural Complexity: Palestinian Therapist – Jewish Patient with Roney Srour, PhD

A decade ago I started to tell my colleagues that there is something big here in the therapeutic room and if we don’t talk about it in the room and in supervision there’s something we are missing here. We are not talking just about two people who can speak only on the humanistic level – just to be human one to the other or a good object one to the other. We have to talk about what is going on outside and how every one of us in this therapeutic dyad is coming from a threatening group to the other.

Roney Srour, PhD

Haifa

Episode Description:

We begin by appreciating how ethnic affiliations have a presence in the therapeutic encounter. Whether therapist/patient cultural allegiances are manifestly similar or different, when the therapeutic space allows for exploration internal meaning can be revealed. These possibilities become fraught when the external representations of these ethnicities are at actual war. Dr. Srour describes working through his countertransference struggles which he felt was essential in coming to empathize with the internal experiences of his Jewish patients. He characterizes this as ‘political countertransference’ and feels that the freedom to speak of outside realities in the treatment dyad is an essential aspect of a deepening psychotherapy.

Our Guest:

Dr. Roney Srour, a Palestinian-Israeli clinical and educational psychologist is married and the father of 2 sons who lives in Haifa and works as a clinical psychologist in the Israeli Ministry of Health and in private practice. Dr. Srour teaches and researches “psychodynamic psychotherapy with cultural and political competence” at the University of Haifa and is a lecturer and supervisor in two post-graduate programs of psychotherapy. He is an activist in the field of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Mentioned in This Episode

IPA Off the Couch – www.ipaoffthecouch.org

Recommended Readings

Gorkin, M. (1986). Counter-Transference in Cross-Cultural Psychotherapy: The Example of Jewish Therapist and Arab Patient. Psychiatry, 49, 69-79.

Srour, R. (2015) Transference and Countertransference Issues During Times of Violent Political Conflict: The Arab Therapist-Jewish Patient Dyad, Clinical Social Work Journal, 43(1).

Baum, N. (2011). Issues in Psychotherapy with Clients Affiliated with the Opposing Side in a Violent Political Conflict. Clinical Social Work Journal, 39, 91-100.

Altman, N. (2000). Black and White Thinking: A Psychoanalyst Reconsiders Race.  Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 10(4), 589-605.

Ghassan Kanafani, Men in the Sun Lynne Rienner Publishers 1999

6 comments on “Episode 91: Cultural Complexity: Palestinian Therapist – Jewish Patient with Roney Srour, PhD

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  3. Yudit Jung says:

    Dear Harvey and Dr. Srour,

    Thank you for sharing this great interview with us. Dr. Srour’s courage to deal with such an emotionally intense topic was incredibly helpful and impressive.
    To name the “transference-elephant in the room” is always difficult, but Dr. Srour’s ability to face it so directly and compassionately inspired me to do the same and deal more directly with our home-grown political conflicts: i.e. racism in the analytic treatment.

    Yudit Jung

  4. Sahar says:

    Thank you. I found this post very touching.
    I am a psychotherapist in Canada coming from middle east and struggle with some similar issues. I think it is very important to reflect different point of views and discuss the influence of ongoing global political issues on therapists who come from conflicted areas.
    I hope psychoanalytical thinking helps to have a more peaceful planet.

  5. Lea Eligal says:

    Thanks for this touching and important interview

  6. Leon Hoffman says:

    Dear Harvey and Dr. Srour

    This is on of the best episodes I have heard. It really is a model of how to approach obviously turbulent emotions caused by real political conflicts. How they affect one’s identity as well as how to best think about it psychoanalytically.

    Thank you

    Leon Hoffman

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