Ethnography as Metaphor in Psychotherapy Training

Harry Stack Sullivan (1940) described the psychotherapist as most essentially a “participant-observer.” This term is typically used to characterize the dual roles of the ethnographic researcher. The myriad of similarities that exist between the anthropological method of ethnography and psychotherapy afford a distinctive pedagogical opportunity. A model of psychotherapy instruction in which ethnography is used as conceptual framework and experiential metaphor is presented here. An overview of the model, as well as its potential advantages and limitations, is discussed. In the absence of any established pedagogy in psychotherapy and given current pressures in graduate training programs to condense curricula and integrate research and clinical instruction, ethnography provides a valuable teaching alternative or supplement to current psychotherapy training methods.