The literature review in this thesis is an exploration of the recent emphasis in policy on the equality of mental health services for minority ethnic clients, with a focus on cultural competence models in clinical psychology. The review is based on a textual analysis of a policy document to consider whether cultural competence is a promotion or restriction of equality. The policy and models of cultural competence were found to employ essentialist definitions that could be an issue in developing appropriate and relevant services. It is argued that a context-specific and flexible interpretation of culture is required. The empirical research examines clinical psychological discourses about working with minority ethnic clients. It discusses an interview study and a group discussion study conducted among clinical psychologists. Drawing on discourse analysis this research examines the interpretative repertoires and discursive strategies that psychologists use in their accounts of working with minority ethnic clients, and how these construct a particular version of cultural competence. In the interviews, an interpretative framework in terms of 'social context' involved a consideration of the client's cultural background, and an interpretative framework of 'individual context' was considered to be a way of formulating the client's own interpretation of cultural background. In the group discussion, the key interpretative framework was the 'individual/curious' repertoire, which also focused on understanding cultural background from the client's interpretation. It is shown that in using these repertoires the psychologists' construction of cultural competence oscillates between a risk of reifying minority ethnic groups and a risk of neglecting issues such as ethnic discrimination. Based upon the literature and empirical parts, the reflective part of this thesis considers the researchers orientation to the research, in terms of epistemology, and as a minority ethnic researcher conducting research on the subject of minorities.

In this thesis I develop a psychosocial approach to prejudice and discrimination among the Mexican-origin population in the U.S. state of Arizona. I argue that although the Mexican-origin population has been oppressed and discriminated against by the dominant white population for centuries, this minority group has its own history of intra-group prejudice and discrimination. Moreover, I argue that the attitudes and behaviours of Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans, and the interactions between them, are influenced by three main elements: 1) structural factors (such as exploitation and inequality); 2) dominant ideologies (such as colonisation and white supremacy/superiority) and; 3) cultural commonalities between Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans (in particular, the Spanish language). Within this context, I employed approximately thirty free association narrative interviews, notes based on ethnographic and participant observations, amongst other data sources (such as newspaper articles and informal interviews), to reveal much about the unconscious dynamics and processes under which Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans interact. In the first half of the thesis I describe the social and political context of Arizona, which includes the history of the Mexican-origin population in that state as well as the implementation of the anti-immigration law, Senate Bill 1070 and its effects on the Mexican-origin population. In addition to this, I describe the methodology I used to conduct this research (participants, types of interviews and analysis of the collected data). In the second half of the thesis, I analyse prejudice and discrimination coming from ‘outside’ and ‘inside’ the Mexican-origin population with the use of psychoanalytic (Freud, Klein, Dalal), sociological (Douglas, Jimenez, Clarke) and post-colonial theories (Fanon, Memmi, Bhabha). In conclusion, I argue that the phenomenon of prejudice and discrimination among Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans in Arizona cannot be reduced to psychological nor sociological explanations but that it needs to be addressed and approached by several disciplines.