Recognizing difference: the challenge of ethnopsychiatry

Recognizing difference of the Other is the basis of legitimacy of ethnopsychiatry that is necessarily multiple, changing, and itself bearing subtleties and variations. It is from their practice at the Service d'aide psychologique specialisee aux immigrants et refugies (SAPSIR), that the authors propose another perspective of this discipline taking into account of course, the cultural and psychological dimension of the individual; they also consider existential and humanistic universals such as the need of giving meaning, of continuity of the self and coherence as well as the various dimensions of identity. Their clinical approach, respectful of the principles of ethnopsychiatry, is structured around three axis : work on links, work on different dimensions of identity, work on coherence and meaning of situations experienced. This approach allows to accompany and facilitate essential elaborations involved in the psychological work of refugees as well as individuals exposed to extreme situations such as torture.