In this article we discuss psychoanalytical clinical work with patients from the poor class, focusing on the difficulties and deadlocks that come up when one treats patients who show subjective organizations that are very different from those originally described in psychoanalytic theory. Assuming that Ferenczi's notion of confusion of languages could be useful for thinking about problems that arise from the coexistence of different patterns of social relationships in highly excluding societies, we emphasize different dimensions of psychic suffering, with special focus on the psycho-social dimension.
Culture; psychopathology; psychic pain; psychoanalysis