Writing Therapies —An Ethnographic Approach to Transcultural Therapies

The paper presents an ethnographic research in the ethnopsychoanalytic tradition about a specific type of therapy, which was developed in France: the transcultural therapy in a "multicultural group setting." The authors detail the construction of their methodological approach, which relies on the French and the Swiss tradition of ethnopsychoanalytic research. This research buttresses the argument that the work on the therapeutic alliance, mediation and the construction of new meanings are central for this type of work. They also describe this setting as a space for profoundly creative encounters and the development of new meanings coming "from the margins" of French society.