Spirits in the Consulting Room

Eight Tales of Healing

SERGE BOUZNAH AND CATHERINE LEWERTOWSKI

FOREWORD BY JASWANT GUZDER

TRANSLATED BY CARMELLA ABRAMOWITZ MOREAU

“The Spirits in the Consulting Room is a must-read for all who wish to immerse themselves in eight heart-wrenching cases that rely on transcultural or intercultural mediation in healthcare. A great tool to equip healthcare providers or anyone working with diverse patients, this book vividly showcases how to consider a more intercultural approach and empower patients with the agency they need to help transform their conditions from a human perspective.”

—Izabel E. T. de V. Souza, author of Intercultural Mediation in Healthcare: From the Professional Medical Interpreters’ Perspective

For any country that has a large and diverse migrant population, it is a struggle to connect these people to the country’s institutions, including the healthcare system, which can be overwhelming in its complexity. Cultural and language barriers often make it difficult for doctors to fully understand the symptoms of their migrant patients, reach accurate diagnoses, or properly treat their suffering. Thus, medical practitioners must attempt new, innovative practices in order to reach patients where they are and convince them to accept treatment from doctors they don’t totally understand. In France, Serge Bouznah and Catherine Lewertowski have pioneered one such practice—that of transcultural mediation.

Drawn from two decades of their experience with transcultural mediation, Spirits in the Consulting Room tells the stories of eight patients—mainly migrants—and their families. Each chapter focuses on a different patient, and Christelle, Djibril, Moncef, Alhassane, Jacinthe, Amy, Cyril, Alice, and Pierre leap off the page as distinct personalities with unique situations. Together, these chapters reveal how patients’ comprehension of their symptoms is shaped by their cultural background, while recounting the challenges of translating this into terms the doctors can grasp.

SERGE BOUZNAH is a public health physician specializing in transcultural clinical practice. In 1988 he founded one of the first services of transcultural mediation in France. He is currently the director of the Centre Babel at the Hôpital Cochin-Paris and heads the department for mediation practice in transcultural situations at the Université Paris Descartes.

CATHERINE LEWERTOWSKI is a physician who specializes in transcultural approaches. She currently oversees the primary health centers for mothers and children in the department of Seine Saint-Denis.

CARMELLA ABRAMOWITZ MOREAU studied social anthropology and English literature at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and holds an MA in translation from the University of London.

Rutgers Global Health