On a Culturally Humble Psychoanalytic Supervision Perspective: Creating the Cultural Third

What is the role of cultural humility in psychoanalytic supervision? In this article, we address that question. While culture has been recognized as central to supervision practice (e.g., Tummala-Narra, 2004), the psychoanalytic supervision literature remains highly limited in addressing issues related to culture and diversity. In what follows, we present a psychoanalytic supervision perspective that is anchored by the construct of cultural humility. Cultural humility is defined, 10 conceptual/practice guideposts of a culturally humble supervision view are proposed, 2 supervision case examples are described, and some supervision/cultural humility research hypotheses are proposed for possible empirical study. Teaching supervisees about and modeling cultural humility is considered to be preparatory education for the creation of a cultural third. Realizing cultural humility via supervisory interaction involves the opening of a supervisor-supervisee third space whereby cultural meanings and experiences are welcomed and can be explored, examined, and experienced anew. This supervision cultural third ideally becomes a prototype for the supervisee/ patient's own creation of a treatment cultural third.