| Summary: | This study explored how psychodynamically oriented therapists understand and work with
negative racial sentiments arising in traumatized clients. One of the aims of the study was to
highlight and examine the technical, countertransferencial and ethical dilemmas faced when a
patient brings ‘politically difficult’ material infused with negative racial sentiment to therapy. It
was hoped that information gleaned would contribute to theoretical and technical understanding
of this phenomenon and assist in working with such negative racial sentiments. In order to
investigate the research questions eight therapists who identified themselves as
‘psychodynamically-oriented’ participated in semi-structured interviews on the topic of negative
racial sentiment (NRS) in therapy. The study was located in the qualitative research tradition, and
interview transcripts were subject to a critical thematic content analysis. The main themes were
identified and presented under three sections, namely: how therapists understand, work with and
respond to the phenomenon of NRS in traumatized clients. Understandings included the
formation of NRS as inter alia reflecting the use of defenses such as splitting, projection,
projective identification, the triumph of the bad object and a breakdown in the capacity to
symbolize. Tensions in understanding the phenomenon of NRS post-trauma and related latent
themes were also identified. Therapists’ approaches to working with NRS included the use of a
range of implicit assessment criteria such as, whether, for example, the patient’s response was
experienced as ego-dystonic or ego-syntonic. Technical strategies for intervention included
adherence to a working model, interpretive interventions and cognitive strategies. The
participating therapists’ countertransferential responses to negative racial sentiment were
categorized, taking the form of: negative feeling towards or disidentification from the patient;
negative feeling towards the perpetrator or identification with the patient and therapeutic impasse.
Some guidelines proposed by the participating therapists for managing NRS, as it occurs in
psychotherapy with traumatized clients, are presented.
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