Abstract
The ramifications of apartheid’s racialised divisions continue to infiltrate into the therapeutic relationship in the form of unconscious racial dynamics. Addressing the racial countertransference to bring unconscious racial material to conscious awareness is crucial to enhancing therapeutic outcomes. Some previous research found that Black South African psychologists felt compelled to be neutral in response to their racial countertransference. As a result, I aimed to explore community service clinical psychologists’ (CSCPs’) countertransference experiences when working in a multi-racial, clinical setting. I conducted semi-structured interviews with 9 CSCPs. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. I used interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) and interpreted the findings through the lens of a relational psychoanalytic approach. I identified four superordinate themes. The first theme highlights that CSCPs’ countertransference in a multi-racial, clinical setting was shaped by race as well as culture, gender and age. According to the second theme, the content of the racial countertransference included negative emotions, strong feelings related to power dynamics, being unable to think and extreme caution. The third theme shows how CSCPs seemed ambivalent about addressing their racial countertransference. The fourth theme demonstrates that CSCPs valued supervision and personal therapy as strategies to manage their racial countertransference yet were critical of their university training. The findings indicate that CSCPs experience challenges with addressing their racial countertransference. The challenges are most likely the result of a complex interplay between their difficulties tolerating their racial countertransference and the current challenges in clinical psychology training on countertransference management. Future research should explore how therapists can better manage these difficulties.
M.A. (Psychology)