The cross-culturally disordered self: A self-psychological study and treatment

The psychotherapeutic treatment of a young woman whose development was thwarted by patriarchal, sexist, familial, and cultural contexts is presented and discussed. The history, dream material, and symptomotology indicate developmental deficits from which derived a lack of cohesive, individual selfhood as well as narcissistic vulnerabilities manifested by a high propensity for shame. The author posits a view of patriarchy as acculturating women subjectively to experience themselves on an unconscious fantasy level as appendages of men, thus depriving them of genuine and authentic selfhood. This perspective is used as a lens through which this woman's experience in two patriarchal cultures can be empathically understood. The case enables us to examine how the process of acculturation in patriarchal contexts can interfere with women's capacity to develop a strong sense of self and allows us to consider whether and how human development is culturally determined.