Greg, I don't know anything about the clinical issues you raise, but
here's just a couple of quick comments on the broader issues.
Some transcultural situations involve different languages. The grid
mightn't be the first, or best, technique to use in such situations as
there is a whole set of issues to do with meaning capture when
translation occurs. As someone who has translated the Postulate and
Corollaries into Polish, and used grid techniques with Polish colleagues
and clients conducting the grid in Polish, I can see its value but am
also aware of the difficulties involved where verbal and behavioural
idioms vary.
On the matter of meaning capture across cultural boundaries, you might
find the following helpful:
Jankowicz A.D. "The new journey to Jerusalem : mission and meaning in the
managerial crusade to eastern Europe" _Organization Studies_ 1994, 15, 4,
479-507.
which also suggests a non-grid technique for exchanging meanings across
linguistic boundaries.
Perhaps the following will also be helpful; the first has a little
empirical material exemplifying differences and similarities revealed
when constructs are laddered in an effort to compare values across
cultures; and the second develops the theme of justification of intended
meaning transfer.
Jankowicz A.D. "On resistance to changeš: in the post-command economies,
and elsewhere " in Lee, M., Letiche, H., Crawshaw, R. & Thomas, M. (eds.)
_ Management Education in the New Europe: Boundaries and Complexity_
London: International Thompson 1996.
Jankowicz A.D. "Negotiating shared meanings of the management process: a
discourse in two voices" _Journal of Constructivist Psychology_ 1995, 8,
2, 117-128.
I'd be very interested to hear more of what you're doing in this field,
either via the mailing list or by direct e-mail!
Kind regards,
Devi Jankowicz
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%