Multi-culturalism, race, intersectionality and the polyphonic self: structural and societal positions

The public works I am presenting are multi-faceted and are organised under four main headings:

• Leadership and consultancy
• Diversity and multi-culturalism
• Interpreters’ training
• Developing cognitive analytic trainings, nationally and internationally.

The context statement begins with an introduction to the public works I have undertaken, with five chapters and the concluding chapter summarising the emerging themes from the work.

The introduction includes the training programmes developed, the framework and the reasons for choosing CAT for the work, followed by an outline of the author’s personal history, to give the reader a sense of the author’s professional and personal journey, background, and context of how and where the public works were undertaken. My experiences and position within the society as a multilingual, multi-cultural woman of colour, the insight gained through these experiences, and how these influenced and shaped my work is explored.

The challenges of working in an inner-city borough, working collaboratively with the third sector and BAME communities, and recognising the centrality of religion and spirituality in mental health are discussed in the chapters on culture and language. Alternative models of care in mental health systems, cultural conceptualisations and formulations, along with the role of language in understanding the self, are elaborated through the works undertaken.

Chapter 4 addresses racism in individuals and collectively, in society, organisations and structures, including internalised intergenerational colonial voices, power dynamics and the impact of this on the public works.

The work strongly advocates that clinicians need to consider the polyphonic multilingual, cultural, racial and intergenerational aspects of the social self in their clinical work and when developing psychotherapy training models as an essential factor to intercultural and anti-racist practice.

Theoretical knowledge derived from cognitive psychology, linguistics and psychoanalytic concepts that underpin Cognitive Analytic Psychotherapy (Anthony Ryle), including the work of Vygotsky, his socio-cultural theory and Bakhtin’s theory of dialogism, have been central and have provided the backdrop to my work.

The work of Frantz Fanon and Suman Fernando provided the scaffolding needed to discuss complex concepts and ideas around race and racism within a relational framework.

The public works brought to the fore the fact that the development of self is not just an ‘inside to outside’ process but is more of an ‘outside to inside’ process where language, race and culture shape it.